This Is How It Ends (TWD)
by uiohfg45
Summary: I pretty crap at writing summaries but this starts of with Piper, Mason, Henry and Aaron left alone with everyone the've ever known or cared for has either died or left them. We soon find some familiar prison peeps. Give it a shot please! (some people may be dead or alive)
1. Chapter 1

This is how it all ends, I mean I thought we had a chance but… now I'm not so sure. The Barn stood glowing with flames against the midnight sky, the cracking of the fire could be heard from miles. Our group had been staying in the farm house for the entire winter, and after weeks of sleeping with one eye open I finally felt safe, This place seemed like a haven compared to the road, we where safe from…from those things. I looked over at the cars that surrounded the farm road; I never thought someone could do this to another human being, for months I though the only threat was those undead freaks, never people. Apparently when the world ends people lose the will to act like…. Well act like people. They came first yesterday morning demanding we leave and surrender the farm, after that I don't know what happened. All I know is they came back and attacked, with a herd of walkers on their tail. I hear gunshots in the distance and then the piercing cries of Aaron. _Aaron! _What's happening, the grip on 9mm. loosens, I run toward the cries of the infant, I see him with Henry, Thank god! Henry, my little brother, since all this had started he seemed to age every day, he looked up at me with his dark eyes

"She's dead…" He mumbles, his voice like gravel

I look down to see her, Abigail… my backpack starts to feel heavy, I fall to my knees She had been my like a mother to me after everything had happened. I look at the pale face of the blonde women I came to know, her face slack, I look down to the blood leaking from in her head, it was a clean shot to the head. At least she wont come back, I see Aaron reaching forward, looking down at his dead mother I choke down the lump forming in my throat. Henry turns and shoves Aaron in my arms and reaches to pick up Abby's gun.

"C'mon, Piper"

It so sounds distant until feel him shake my shoulder, I look up at him tears stinging my eyes, while his face read nothing, blood matted the ends of his ash brown hair, his face…only 8 years old yet he seemed older then me, What had happened to my baby brother.

"I said come on!"

His voice strained, he turns around and marches towards the back of the house,

"We need to find the others".

He's right I think, there is no time for mourning. We need to find everyone; they could be still alive right? As if on cue we heard more gunshots, I grab Henrys hand and pull him to the other side of the house, I hand him Aaron.

"Stay hear" I say as firmly as I can trying to hide the pain and weakness in my voice

"What! NO I can help" his eyes glare into me, challenging me to look away

I think quickly, "Yes, I know, I know but…" Shit. What now.

"But what Piper, huh?, you know I can kill these things, I'm not a little kid anymore!" his eyebrows furrow but he keeps his gaze

"Henry…. I need you to stay here, to stay here with Aaron, keep him away and safe" my voice wavers with every word

He slumps down against the house, Aaron against his chest

"Fine."

I breathe in slowly, then run towards the noise. I hear more gunshots, jeez how many people where here, as I ran around the house a rotten shriveled hand grabs my arm, I don't think I just shoot, My arm flays upwards and the power of the gun stresses my arm. Shit, I am so not ready for this.

"PIPER!" a disembodied voice screams

I quickly turn to see the speaker. Goddammit if Henry got up so help me I'll…

I look up. _Mason. _He's alive. A weight I didn't even know was there suddenly lifts from my chest, I run up quickly towards him and embrace him. Whoa, did i just do that? i didn't expect myself to do that neither did he, and i can easily tell. We withdrawal slowly and awkwardly, we were always close friends but throughout all of this we somehow got closer. However we always seem to be awkward, I don't know why, neither does he, I mean I think he doesn't and even if he does he won't tell me.

"Henry…is he" Mason asks carefully his awkward smile fading, his light blonde hair falls over his grey eyes.

"What… No he's fine, he's with Aaron behind the house" I say with slight hesitation, I smile, wait why am I smiling, there's nothing to smile about, stop it! After what seems like an eternity I hear the familiar groan accompanied by the well-known shuffle that never seems to leave.

"I got this" he says gravely, and reaches for the hammer on his belt, I look in awe as he kicks the knee of the oncoming walker, as it falls he thrusts the hammer down on the head. I shudder, I'm still not used to the dead getting up, and they just seem so human. They can't be completely dead can they? There must be something in them, like even a spark of something they once were, for them to move they must have something in their brain that causes them to get up. Stop, I push my thoughts down, I can't think like this, if you think like that you get hurt, killed or worse.

"Get Henry, Aaron and the bags, we're leaving" Mason states gruffly, panic and confusion overwhelms me.

"Wait what?, what about everyone" I ask, "you cant just expect me to leave without—"

"I said pack your shit!" losing his temper, His face growing red. I step back surprised, Mason never yelled at me before, I look at him then to the walker on in the grass… a lump forms in my throat, this is worse then Abigail, its Masons older brother Reese. I suddenly realized why we're not looking for other survivors, 13 years older then Mason, Reese was the strongest in our group, if Reese was gone then the rest of our group could never have survived.

"Mason—" I begin

"Just go! We need to get out of here!" he yells, I decide to leave it for now, I head over to where I left Henry and Aaron. I pass Abigail one last time, and look around for Henry and Aaron.

"Henry" I hiss, I wait for a dew seconds "Henry! get your butt over here" my voice panicking, where was he? Did one of those things get him? I look around the spot were I left him, no blood, nothing, where was he?

"shhhhhhh, Pipes I'm over here" I turn towards the sound of my brother, "here, under the house" I look down. I smile, that smart kid, he had managed to get him and Aaron through the wooden fence that protected the crawl space.

"C'mon we got to go" I state I gesture for him to give me the small child

"Go?" he asks quizzically

"No time, lets just go" I say, I see his shoulders shrug as he passes Aaron through the crawlspace, I saw a shadow come up behind me, I quickly turn. Oh shit why'd I turn, what am I going to do throw a baby at it, the corpse slowly reaches forward, I back up pressing my self to the edge of the house. Oh god! I cant reach for my gun with Aaron in my hands, his face looms in, the things eyes bulged, I noticed the bite on his left shoulder still bloody, he must have been one of the men who attacked us, his jaw snapped moving the of rotting skin on his cheek, does it still count as a he? I hear Henry reach for his gun; before he even lifts it up I see a familiar hammer thrust into the walkers head. Blood splatters everywhere, is that possible for that much blood to come out of one persons head? I fall down against the house, the small infant crying in my arms. I hug Aaron and close my eyes, breathing in fast.

"You okay Piper?" Henry and Mason say in union, I hold Aaron close and slowly get up

"Y..yeah" I say shakily, that was close, too close. I grab my bag from under the house and look towards my group. Two 14 year olds, an 8 year old and a 1 year old, I sigh, this is not going to go well.

_**This is the first chapter, and my first story. Any comments/hints/tips that can help my writing get better are greatly appreciated. I'm working on chapter 2, which will be considerable larger and the characters will soon meet up with our beloved walking dead characters.**_


	2. Chapter 2

"Please Aaron…. Just stop crying," I say with desperation, it had been a week since the attack on the farm and had already run out of food, and our last can of baby formula, we needed to make a run soon I thought, otherwise Aarons not going to make it. I look down at the moaning child, this is why; you don't leave children by themselves during a fucking apocalypse. I was mad at everyone who took care of us, at everyone who failed us. If a bunch on kids could stay alive, why couldn't at least one adult stay to take of us! A wave of guilt washed over me, I leaned my head back against the tree, I guess the apocalypse makes people cold.

I realized we wouldn't last long by our selves, what if one of got sick or injured? Without running into another group we wouldn't make it another two days. Even if we were to find another group, who knows what they'll be like, we can't contribute; we would be simply mouths to feed. Aarons crying snapped me out of my daze; he had been crying in and out for hours, how had we not run into a single walker? Aaron shifted in my arms and let out another tired cry.

"Piper…." Henry began waking from his sleep, and then snapped, "Could you please, shut that thing up! Jesus Christ, I need sleep if I'm going to cover your ass tomorrow".

He turned over and went back to sleep. I frowned; less than a year ago Henry wouldn't even say 'shut up'. I looked down at Aaron, and lightly stroked his pudgy face with my fingertips. I grabbed my bag with one hand and searched through for the single pacifier we had. My fingers grazed the small plastic and I pulled it out of the bag, I cleaned it on my sleeve, this is the best we can do, I sigh and give it to Aaron, finally he's is silent. I sat there against the tree and looked into the glowing flames, For once I couldn't hear the haunting groan of the dead, just the cracking of the fire. I looked around our makeshift camp. We left the farm with nothing but our backpacks; The only things we had were clothes and water, empty can littered the space around our bags, my stomached groaned with a dull pain, during all this my stomached became painfully thin. We needed to find food.

I looked as the glow of the fire, it reflected on Masons face, then Henrys back, everything seemed to have a orange tint, it made Masons honey blonde hair look dark and unfamiliar, and Henrys red sweater looked like a fire of its own. I heard Mason murmur in his sleep, it had been happening every night. I wondered what he was dreaming about, I presumed it was about Reese, losing his brother seemed to make him older and harder. I looked over at Henry; I can't even imagine what I'd do without him, even if he had seemed a bit…distant, I hope it's just a phase.

Caught up in my gaze I didn't notice the shuffle, after I saw was the shadow fall over the fire, I whipped around, with the corpse glaring in my face, I scooted towards where Mason and Henry were with the walker following my every move, my arms stiffened around the infant cradled in my arms. I didn't know I screamed but I guess I must have since I heard Mason and Henry groan and jerk awake.

"Piper what the…" began Mason, realization struck him, his mouth formed the words "oh shit" but nothing came out, he reached for his hammer, and ran forward, then swiftly indented it in the groaning corps, blood splat from where the hammer hit. I held back a breath, god fucking-dammit that was the second time in a week that he'd saved me while I cowered with the baby in my arms. I was becoming incapable and everyone knew it.

"Thanks" I muttered, I whipped the blood from my face and wiped it on my shirt. I examined Aaron for blood, he was clean yet he somehow during the panic he fell asleep.

"Yeah, no problem" he replied and slowly walked towards me, he gestured for me to give Aaron to him. "Give him over, go have some rest". I suddenly felt aware of how tired I was, I had been up for hours with Aaron.

"You sure?" I asked my eyebrow rose, I guess he decided to step up during the end of the world. Mason never really got the whole 'taking care of a baby' thing, I had practice with Henry when he was younger so at least I had some memory of child care, but Mason was the younger brother, he didn't have the experience. I gave Aaron to him carefully, and watched as he held him awkwardly. I stifled a giggle, not very well apparently, because he obviously noticed.

"What?" he asked with annoyance as his eyes narrowed

"Your holding him wrong" I snorted somehow seeing someone like Mason cradle a baby was hilarious. I reached forward and slowly moved his hand upwards on the child, He looked down at Aaron.

"Ah, that does seem better" he said, I nodded and headed towards Henry. "G'night Piper" I hear him say.

"Night" I say slowly as I lay down next my brother. "You alright Hen" I ask, with concern

"Why wouldn't I be" he replied as he rolled over, indicating that our 'conversation' was over, I sighed and turned and closed my eyes.

_I found myself walking down my street, I looked around, I was wearing my schoolbag, it was as if nothing happened, as if the dead didn't rise and start attacking the living, I felt a tug on my left hand, I looked down, it was Henry. He looked years younger, his ashy hair ruffled and cut short. He smiled; I hadn't seen that smile in months. _

"_Look" he said in an unrecognizable childish voice, he pointed to a figure walking though the road, I squinted and pulled Henry towards the side of the street. _

"_Hello!" I called, the man looked drunk, he seemed to shuffle as he walked. His head jerked up. I saw his face, blood dripped from his jaw, I fell back to the sidewalk, Henry seemed to slip from my grasp._

"_DADDY!" I heard Henry cry out in glee, he started running towards out father. As I tried to get up and stop him my feet remained planted to the ground. The figure grunted and paced toward us, I called out for Henry but nothing came out. Henry caught up to him and hugged his torso, I saw our Dad lean forward and sink his teeth into Henrys shoulder. I curled myself into a ball and covered my ears, Henrys blood-curdling cries rang in my ears, everything looked red—_

"—Piper" I felt a hand shake me awake. I slowly opened my eyes, my head felt groggy as I sat up. I looked around in confusion; I noticed both his hands on each side of my arms.

"Waa?" I said, my mind racing with the previous events

"I said are you okay? Piper, you're crying… " Mason shifted one of his hands and wipes my face with his sleeve. Only moments later did he realize that his sleeve was covered with gunk from last nights kill.

"Um…. Mason, you got…uh. Stuff on your sleeve" I said shakily, half with humor, the other still shaken from my dream. I felt the half dry blood smear across my face I shivered.

"Oh shit! Sorry" he said embarrassed, "I'll go.. Um get a cloth" he got up and walked over to his bag. I looked up at the trees that formed a sort of, canopy. It seemed about mid morning but then again, I wouldn't know. I looked over to where Henry was sleeping, and found empty space.

"Wait, where's Henry!" I looked around frantically, my head filling with every single scenario.

"Oh, he's with Aaron" he pointed to the largest tree; Henry sat slumped over sleeping with Aaron in his arms.

Confusion washed over me, why was he over there, I got up and walked towards him, slowly and carefully I grasped Aaron, trying not to wake Henry. With Aaron almost completely out of Henrys clutch, I nicked his chin with the side of my elbow, Henry jolted into action razing his knife.

"WOAH… Henry" I backed up, Henry looked up, then scowled then slumped back down. "Hey, why'd you sleep over here" I asked tenderly Aaron grabbing my hair with his pudgy fists.

Henry looked up again "You mutter in your sleep" he replied emotionless. He was in no obvious mood to talk.

"Oh, ok… just tell me if you need anything, okay?"

Henry simply grunted in reply, I sighed and walked towards Mason, He was still shifting through the bags. I shift Aaron to one arm, and tap Mason with my hand.

"Does Henry seem a bit…different to you?" I ask eagerly, Mason doesn't reply and keeps shifting through the bag. "Mason?" I ask again with slight annoyance.

"Oh, sorry Pipes, I don't know, maybe" He says without looking up, he sighs loudly and throws a couple empty bean cans in the woods. "We are now completely out of food" he says with miserable enthusiasm "we need to get moving, find a house or even better maybe a town or something"

My stomach grumbles loudly, "yeah, ill go tell Henry" I shift Aaron up as I turn and start walking towards Henry, I felt a quick hand on my shoulder. I turn again, "Hmm?" I ask

"I'll go, he seems less grumpy talking to another dude" Mason says looking sympathetic "I'm sure its just a phase, it'll pass in a few weeks" I smile, knowing he was just trying to make me feel better but its better than nothing.

"Yeah, sure" I reply, I shift Aaron in my arms and walk towards my backpack. I look over to Henry and see him and Mason exchange small conversation while Henry nods. It made them seem even older. Mason looks up towards me.

"You ready?" he calls out, I nod as he lazily puts his arm on Henrys shoulder and walks towards Aaron and me. I grab the Georgia state map from Masons bag, and then softly throw it at him.

"Where we heading" Henry states, zipping his Maroon hoodie, then shifting his gun holster. I shrug and raise my eyebrow at Mason, as if to ask him. Mason shifts uncomfortably, then looks at the map.

"We should head west of highway 34" Mason gestures on the map, "then cut through here-" he traces a line through the map "-so we can end up near this town…. I think it says Wardberry or something" he points to the blood prints all over the map. Henry and me both nod and we started walking forward. After about an hour of walking Aaron starts to wiggle in my arms, he's starting to smell.

"Um Mason.." I abruptly stop, Mason looks behind rudely.

"What now" he says rolling his eyes.

"Aarons diaper smells…" I say with disgust as I flip my backpack off my back, as I reach inside for another diaper, I hear Henry yell "heads up" as he throws the tub of wet wipes towards me. I quickly change Aaron head forward. Despite out lack of food, we had tons of diapers, they for some reason never ran out. I looked forward; it seemed to be an endless stream of woods. We walked for hours in silence. At about mid afternoon we found a cabin in front of a road.

"it looks secure" Mason says as Henry raised his gun.

"If someone takes Aaron, I can check to see if there's any walkers in the house" I say putting my bag in the grass.

"Are you shouldn't just stay with Aaro—" Henry began, Mason cuts him off

"Yeah sure, Henry you take Aaron and I'll follow up behind you Piper." Henry and Mason both glare at each other, was I missing something here? Did something happen between them that I wasn't aware of. I decided to leave the matter until later; I pulled my gun from my holster and walked towards, the house. As I climbed up to the porch, I heard the load creak flow from underneath me. I walked up to the door, and knocked on its window. Surly the sound would attract any walkers on the inside.

"Good idea" I heard Mason say as he walked around the house to check for any dangers, a slam hit the door from the inside, I guess there was only one dead guy in there. I stepped back, extended my arm and opened the door. Expecting a walker I aimed upwards, however I didn't expect the figure to reach forward and grab my arm. It wasn't a walker. The guy twisted my arm backwards and pulled me against him, with a barrel to my head.

"WHAT THE FU—" I began to yell, my heart pounding in my chest.

"SHHhh girlie, or my hand might slip" I heard the man say in a gruff amused tone, he was defiantly a Georgia native because of his accent. I felt the cold steel press more against my head.

"Piper you find anything" I heard Mason yell from the doorway, after a few moments, when he didn't hear a reply, he walked into the room, as soon as he saw the man he then abruptly halted to a stop. Mason quickly raised his Colt Python.

"Put the gun down son," The stranger said shifting the gun pressed to my head. Mason realized the seriousness of this situation and lowered his gun. "That's a nice piece, where'd you get it" the man said, what was this guy doing? Masons face hardened, the gun had previously belonged to Reese.

"Let her go, so I don't have to blast your face open" Mason replied hostilely, his feet planted on the floor firmly.

"ha-ha, that's funny boy, but you see, I want that gun, and your in no position to refuse" The man looked bored, as if he'd done this a million times. I looked out the window near the door and saw Henry looking inn. He slowly moved undercover, walking to the door then he disappeared. "Now I repeat, give me your gun, your food, and all your shit" As Mason started to hand the gun over, I heard a whizzing sound and the mans grip slackened, I heard another bang as I took advantage of the moments by kicking him in the leg then backing away. I saw a stream of blood flow from the strangers arm and another bullet whizzed and hit him in the head. My ears rang from the gunshots, wait, I heard three gunshots; I looked down at the man, he had two bullets in him. I heard a loud groan, I spun around and saw him fall to the floor.

"MASON!" I screamed as I ran towards the crumped figure near the doorway. I saw Henry run towards me and Mason with Aaron in hand. His gun was out; he must have shot the stranger. I rolled Mason on to his back; the bullet seemed to go straight through the side of his stomach. There was so much blood, I ripped his shirt and whipped as much blood as I could off of him.

"Piper, this man had car keys!" Henry yelled, okay, we can do this. We just need to get Mason in the car and drive him away.

"Go put Aaron in the car and call when you got everything in" I quickly told him. I heard Mason start to groan again, Oh man! He's going to pass out soon. Time seemed to move fast, Henry called for me stating the car situation. "Henry! Come help me lift him in the car!" I called,

"What about Aaron!?" Henry yelled back, we could leave him alone for a minuet right?

"Just put him in the back and hurry" I said, moments later Henry was running through the door, we had to hurry, the gunshots surly attracted walkers. "On three… 1.. 2... 3… lift!" I held Mason head and upper back in my arms, and Henry held the rest, we were struggling to carry him to the car, blood soaked his pants and coated us. We finally got him in the car, I removed Aaron from the back as I put Mason lying down, I gave Aaron to Henry and gestured him to get in the passenger seat. I got behind the wheel and slammed the door; I looked behind through the back window, and saw about 6 walkers coming. I didn't know how to drive, I thought back to before everything started, when my dad used to drive me to school. He put the key in the little keyhole, and then pushed the little bar down into drive, then pushed his foot down on the right pedal, I replicated the memory. I stepped on the gas and the car shot forward.


	3. Chapter 3

After about ten minuets I had finally gotten used to this whole driving thing, my fingers tapped the wheel as we sped down the highway. Every once and a while we passed an abandoned. I looked at my hands, they were covered in Masons blood, the blood had just about dried by now, it itched under my fingernails and seemed to be everywhere, and I mean everywhere, my forearm was almost completely scarlet. Henry sat next to me, he was holding Aaron and for once, he wasn't crying. Henry stared out of the window.

I heard Mason groan from the back seat, Shit! I forgot about him, driving the old Nissan Altima seemed to put me in a full adrenalin mode, I mean I knew it was a pretty crappy car, but HOLY SHIT I was driving a car! Everything seemed to slip from my mind. I looked behind my seat and saw the passed out figure clutching his waist. I fought back tears as I saw the blood stained towel, there was so much blood.

I stopped the car.

"What are you doing!" Henry hissed quietly, trying not to disturb Aaron; he looked up and glared at me from his seat, his emerald eyes pierced into me.

"Look at him, he needs us!" I said with annoyance, how could Henry not se how serious this was? I got out the car, then opened the door to where Masons head lay. I looked down Masons body, blood stained the around the center where he lay, the bottom of his shirt remained ripped from what I took to make the cloth I used to wrap his stomach, it was dark crimson, his golden hair lay stuck up drenched with sweat, he was so pale…. He was losing a lot of blood. My hand went forward and smoothed his hair down, I reached for my buck knife from by belt, I felt the smooth wood surround my fingers, I bent forward, my chocolate brown hair fell in its braid over my face as I cut the cloth off, I examined the wound, blood stopped flowing, but seemed to weep out of the hole in his stomach. I re wrapped his side with a blanket.

I looked around the highway road, I saw a few dead cars but other than that it seemed abandoned. I went to the trunk where Henry put our bags, I looked down and saw our six bags, Wait a sec, we only had 4 bags, how is there… Oh my god! The man from the cabin had stored his stuff in here. I scavenged through the stuff, my heart racing, maybe he had medical stuff, anything, just something that can help. I picked up the first backpack it was fairly light. I pulled the leather straps open and looked in, it held cans. FOOD. In any other situation I would have jumped for joy. I took the cans out of the bag and placed them on the floor beside me I then tossed the leather bag near the car door, Henry could use some food, strike that, I could use some food; I picked the next bag up. It was a lot heavier then the first, I pulled the zipper that surfaced on the top, it held four plastic boxes. I took them out and placed them on the edge of the car.

The first one was neon pink; I opened it with a satisfying click, then let out an unsatisfied breath, it was full of tackle. I closed the box and lightly tossed it back in the trunk. I grabbed the largest of the four; not expecting anything, until I saw the small red plus sign on the top of the box. I opened it, I sighed with relief, it was mostly empty. But it contained a small iodine bottle, bandage wraps, Band-Aids, a sewing kit and a half finished bottle of peroxide. I looked out of the car, the moon had risen in the sky by now and it was getting pretty hard to see far down the road. I grabbed the Iodine and the wraps and hurried towards Mason.

"Could you hurry the hell up!" I heard Henry call out his voice bored and annoyed, something in me snapped, I felt my head get hot, I've had enough of my brothers shit attitude. A short wave of rage went through me. Mason was fucking dying and all this kid cared about was when we were moving. I throw the iodine and wrap into the back seat nearly hitting Masons head. I stormed towards the window where Henry sat in the car.

I leaned in towards the open window "Hey! Henry you know what? Shut the hell up!" I snapped, I saw his head turn, looking out the window his face distorted into anger as his nostrils

"What did you say?" he asked slowly and darkly, his tone was strongly changing. I swear I saw his fingers twitch over his gun. He started to get out of the car, leaving Aaron in the front seat, I push down the lump in my throat, rage filling me, teasing me, after around thirty second of silence I blew up. "I SAID SHUT THE HELL UP." I repeated with full force, my hands waved, "Ever since the farm you have acted like a complete asshole! Now I thought it would pass…" I said with a shaky half laugh. "…But since its not I'm going to tell you, your place" I turned towards Mason and waved my hands at where he lay. "Mason is bleeding out here and all you do is sit in the car and moan! Then when we were in the woods all you did was pout and act like you where fifteen! You talked back to me, and that's only when you decided to talk to me at all" I yelled with rage "Guess what Henry YOU ARE EIGHT!" I raised my hand and pointed at his face "Now you can either be eight or fifteen, but not both so fucking pick one already." I fumed, my hands bawled back to my side. A walker slowly crept out of the woods behind Henry. I was done, done with Henry, done with this fucking world, done with everything. As the corpse started to clime over the guardrails I raised my gun and swiftly shot the figure in the head, wow, I actually hit the target this time. I glared down at Henry.

"Yeah well—" Henry began, his face burning, he breathed in with rage.

"No! No Henry you don't get to talk!" I started "You will either sit in the car with the baby without complaining like a regular eight year old, or step up and help me already! And yeah, I know I'm not perfect, but at least I'm fucking trying, I can't do this alone and I'm just about done with your 'tool cool for this shit' attitude!" I stared coldly out to the distance, Walkers probably heard me from the woods but I was too mad to even care. I then looked at Henry; his eyes were red around, tears formed in corner of his eyes. He caught me looking at his eyes and quickly wiped his eyes. I felt instantly guilty for yelling at him, he was eight… I at least shouldn't have cursed. No wait he had to get a notice of his behavior, I walked forward a step, and hugged him. I felt his small hands clutch my back, "Henry… l love you" I leaned down and kissed his head, We broke apart and I walked back to where Mason lay. My mind raced with everything that happened, Mason groaned.

"W-whattt, happened?" I heard Mason murmur his eyes remained closed. Shit! I was just about the clean his wound with the iodine, now that he's awake its going to sting like hell.

"Shhh, Mason, your going to be okay, I'm just going to clean the wound" I replied my voice wavering, should I tell him its going to hurt? He looked down; he noticed the small bleeding hole gaping from his lower body. His eyes flashed.

"Well look at that," he said, eyebrows rose, "So, how much is it going to hurt" he replied with a bored laugh. He smiled a bit, why he laughing? He must have been in so much pain; his blood loss seemed to make him delusional. I opened his wound sash, the small hole seemed to be layered with red, it had become a lot darker around the edges, was that good or bad?

"Uuuuuh—" I replied

"So a lot then," he stated, it was hard to tell what he thought but I could tell he was gripping himself for what was to come, he closed his eyes and I grabbed his sweaty hand and gripped it tightly, then grabbed the Iodine; I awkwardly held the bottle and slowly dripped the liquid on his wound. I swear I heard his flesh sizzle, Mason stiffened and cried out in weak pain. His grip on my hand tightened immensely, I felt his hand slacken he let out a breath of relief and blacked out. I sighed, and got up, checked his forehead, then re-wrapped the wound. I reached for an extra t-shirt from his bag; I ripped it and folded it into a short cloth, then grabbed my water bottle and wet the mini towel. I placed it over Masons forehead. I sat there and looked at him, he'll be okay, right? After about ten minuets his breath steadied, I must have sat there for about half an hour just watching him, I felt a tapping on my shoulder; I looked around, my hand shifting to my knife. It's Henry.

"Listen Hen, I'm sorry I—" I started apologetically.

"Shhh, look" Henry said in a terrified whisper, he pointed down the highway. I then saw it, I couldn't believe I didn't see it, or for that matter hear it. On the highway, dozens or even hundreds of walkers. They slowly lurched toward us, their eyes bulging in their heads. Oh shit, they were close, it was hard to tell how long it would take for them to get here but we didn't have long. I looked at Henry. "Should I go back in the car" Henry asked, wait was he actually asking me what to do? I looked back at the walkers that were getting closer. We had no time to drive….

"Henry get that leather bag, fill the sides with your sweater, and put Aaron in it" I whispered and pointed towards the empty bag near the door. We had to leave; the car engine would just attract the horde. We needed to carry Mason, and if Henry were carrying Aaron we wouldn't make it five feet.

"What? Why— never mind, okay" he crept towards the bag then went towards the passenger door to pick up Aaron. The moan of the walkers got louder; I went to my knees and grabbed the most useful of the bags, then leaned against the car door, I felt Henry come up beside me with Aaron.

"How do I like…..put him in?" asked Henry gesturing towards Aaron and the bag. I took Aaron and placed him carefully in the bag, it was straight up leather and the padding from Henrys sweater served to protect him and keep him in place. It wasn't the safest but it was at least the best we could do. I lifted the bag with my hands on either side and handed the bag to Henry; he looked confused as the infant giggled as if this was all a game. I reached into my pocket and grabbed the purple pacifier and gave it to Aaron, which should keep him quiet until we get to safety. Henry slowly and carefully put the bag on his back then got up, I nodded towards Mason. By now it had been night for a while, morning had arrived by now. "Where are we going to go" asked Henry, he looked truly terrified. I squeezed his hand lightly. I forced a smile.

"There's a gravel road, over there" I pointed towards the woods. Henry nodded. "That must lead to something, we can follow that and wait for the horde to pass" A man in a bloody suit passed us, my heart raced as I jolted my arm across Henry to stop him from walking into it. Fortunately this one was the head of the flock and was way ahead of the trailing dead, I got up, grabbed my knife and swiftly stabbed the walker in the head. It crumpled to the ground; I turned and headed towards where Mason lay in the car.

"Okay listen, we need to grab Mason, and we need to do it quick, you grab his feet, ill get his head and arms, then we hurry down that road" I instructed Henry, he nodded and shifted the Aaron bag. We got this, we totally got this, I convince myself, and we carefully head towards where Mason lays. I open the door; I see Mason turn his head towards us. He's awake.

"Uhh hey, what—what exactly happened" Mason groans wiping his face with his hands. I see Henry go to the other side of the car and grab a couple cans of food, including the medical box.

"Hey, we need to get out of here fast" I whisper, "can you move?" he lifts the upper part of his chest and gives me a confused look.

"What?...wait, Piper what's going on?" I shake my head, and push my finger to my lips and slowly pointed behind the car.

"Shhh, there is literally a gigantic horde of…. Those things, we need to go right now!" I say with a harsh whisper. "So can you move?" I ask again

Mason looks confused. "Wait—how many of them—wait, actually never mind, he tries to get up. "Ow shit!" he winces and clutches his side.

"Okay, just let me help you," I put my arm around him, "C'mon Mase" I say, half grunting. He puts his weight on me; my knees buckle as he gets out the car. "Henry, get here now" I hiss, I see Henry and Aaron appear from behind the car. "Come help me" I say as Henry comes up from behind, he grips his arm around Masons torso and Mason rests his arm around Henrys shoulders. We hobble towards the other side of the highway towards the gravel path. I hear grunts in the distance, oh fuck me, they've spotted us, the shuffle gets louder and faster. I hear the haunting moans turn into angry shrieks.

"Hurry" Henry says with desperation, we go faster, Mason tries to help by going as fast as he can, but all it does is make his wound bleed more. I look behind us, at least five walkers are remotely close, they rest trail behind. We head forward; I see a corpse walk out of the woods that surround the gravel path. I raise my gun with great struggle, Masons weight effects my shot as pull the trigger, I miss; the figure gets closer, I shoot again and it snarls then crumples to the ground. I grip Mason tighter and pull him further, I grunt with exhaustion. The humid early morning air clings to my skin and my shirt, I'm starting to sweat. We lumber forward; I see a large gate not far in the distance, it's a weird rusty orange color. As we keep going I see it's surrounded by fence and barbed wire, I squint to see the rest of the building, I feel Mason suck in a breath. I gasp.

"Is that a…" Mason grunts, looking up, his feet dragging

"Prison…." Henry finishes in amazement.


	4. Chapter 4

"Prison…it's a prison" I heard Henry huff, I quickly scanned our surroundings. There seemed to be two fences surrounding the land and building. Looking at the rusty gate I saw spikes surrounding the path, smart, I smirked, walkers would get trapped. No one was around, and why would there be; it was about 4am I guessed. No one would be up, and that's presuming there are still alive people in there. I looked at Mason; we needed to get in there. I looked down at my little brother.

"Henry, we need to get in there!" I whispered with desperation. The moans and shrieked of the dead got louder and closer. The two fences parted with a gap, if we could get through the metal fence, we could just camp out in between the fences and be safe from the dead ones. I saw Henrys eyes scan throughout the prison, after about thirty seconds, his eyes flashed and narrowed as he lifted his arm.

"Look! The gate is tied up there, if we pull the wire out we can slip through and re tie it" he sounded hopeful, I looked to where he pointed, a red wire was pulled through the loops of the metal fence. This must have been where people slipped in the prison, or out of it.

"Well done" I shifted as Mason put his weight on my shoulders, I pulled him forward, "C'mon Mase, almost there" Mason shuffled his feet forward in ragged strides. Henry look behind us, and seeing the hoard of walkers, dashed to the side; he then jogged, with Aaron on his back, towards the gate. Once he got there he started to unwind the red wire, the groans got louder, I looked behind us, they were meters away. My heart pounded in my chest. We trudged towards the fence; Henry had finished with the wire and slipped Aaron through the gap, laying him against the fence carefully, he then ran towards us. He came around to Mason and had wrapped his arms around Masons torso. We lurched forward and went as fast as we could until we reached the gate. Once we reached the metal, we pressed up against the gate. Mason and me seemed to move like one as we turned and I gripped the fence, I lifted it as Henry slipped through and picked up Aaron. A walker reached forward onto me, I pushed Mason down on the floor, grappling with the bloody woman in rags, I fell onto the side of the metal fence, I felt the cold metal press into my skin as I held the snapping jaws back; Henry reached down to grip his Ruger but the dead figure seemed to crumple with a loud bang.

Wait what just happened, I looked around to fences, a figure was planted in front of the second fence. I pushed Mason through the gap in the fence, and hurried through the cut. When I climbed through the hole I quickly turned and grabbed the wire. A corpse slammed against the gate, I held it back as it snarled against the holes in the fence, and his lips seemed to stick in on the metal.

"Come on hurry!" I heard the stranger say; she seemed young, maybe even our age. Why would a kid be here this early in the morning? Strike that, what the hell was a kid doing in a prison. I quickly tied up the wire again. Mason groaned and fell to the ground, I rushed down to him, our movement down the pathway seemed to make his wound bleed again. I looked up at the figure behind the second fence, she had a mop of honey blond hair that was tied in a lose braid. She looked about thirteen or fourteen; her green eyes stared as us. "Is he okay?" she asked, I'm not sure if she actually sounded concerned, I shook my head gravely; her eyes flickered to Aaron and Henry, and then dashed through the grass to the prison.

"Hey! Where are you going!" I asked bewildered, I saw her disappear through the courtyard. I sighed, there was no time for distractions, I looked up at Henry, he was taking Aaron out of the bag, and placing him in his arms. I lifted the top of Masons shirt, oh shit! There were red veins that seemed to form from the wound, I ripped the remains of the shirt and wiped the leaking blood. The sound of the walkers against the fence rang in my ears and imprinted its self into me.

"I can handle him, take Aaron and scout the area near the fence" said Henry as he handed Aaron to me; I felt the warm little body clutch to me. Henry and I switched places; he sat beside Mason and pressed his small hands to his wound. I turned and walked along the fence. I looked out to the prison, lights appeared near the end of the courtyard; I squinted and saw figures moving towards us. After about a minuet I herd the murmuring of the group there were about four people, along with the girl I saw earlier. One of the figures was yelling at her.

"Lizzie! What did I tell you about wandering around the fences!" the voice said, it seemed delicate and feminine. "You need to stay in you cell with Mika!" I then heard the girl reply with a bored groan.

"Sorry ma'am " I heard her murmur, as they got closer I ran toward Henry and Mason. No matter what these people could not be trusted. As they reached the fence I reached for my gun and pointed it at the first man. He seemed early forties late thirty's, he grimaced at my gun. He raised his weapon at me, a crossbow; it was aimed straight at my head. Something told me that this man would not miss. Henry raised his small gun at the man.

"Don't hurt her!" he screeched and waved his hands, they were covered in Mason blood. I scanned the people facing us; there was that blonde girl, Lizzie? Yeah I think that was her name. Next to the girl was the woman who yelled at her, she had croppy and short grey hair, and had delicate, mouse-ish features. They looked nothing alike, was that really her mom? Besides her was a dark skinned woman with dreadlocks, I took a double take on the sword she carried. Was that a katana? Where the hell do you get a katana? These people must have done well during the apocalypse. I looked to the two figures next to her, one was a man, he had a rough and in progress beard, along with shaggy brown hair. Next to him was the man pointing his crossbow at me. I glared into the eyes of the man, however he seemed to glare back with much more intimidation. After about twenty seconds of staring I gave in. The brown haired man stepped forward; he looked me up and down, and then proceeded to do the same to Henry and Mason. His eyes fell on Aaron, his face softened.

"Put down your gun" he addressed Henry and me with a gruff voice and slight Kentucky and Georgian accent. "We're going to come through that gate here," he pointed to where the fence ended and the gate started. "You are going to surrender your weapons, and we will take you in for questioning".

"Rick, they're just kids, what can they do? And look one of them is injured" The mousy women said softly. Rick who appeared to be the current leader turned his head, "Carol, They may be kids, but they're capable of anything" he looked me in the eye, "For all we know they could be working with someone, with the governor" this caused the rest of the group to stir. Whoever this governor guy was apparently had an effect on these people.

"Please sir—" Henry began "Our friend was shot, he's not doing to well" he let his hand fall to his side, half pointing at the crumpled boy on the floor. Rick nodded his head.

"Daryl, could you go fetch Hershel, he should be done giving antibiotics to everyone by now". The man with the crossbow gave us one last glare as he jogged back to the prison.

"Lizzie, you go back too, get to bed, we'll talk later", the woman named Carol says as she looks at Henry.

"But Ms. Car! —" The young girl starts

"Go!" Carol barks, Rick turned his head towards me. "Hostler your weapon, and wait for us to come, and if you so much as move your hand towards your gun, ill make you wish you never came here". I scowled and put my gun to my belt, I nodded to Henry to do the same.

"P-Piper, I'm s-scared" stammers Henry As the other group walked to the conjoint gate I paced towards Henry and hugged him.

"It's going to be okay" I whispered, I looked down at Mason, he was clutching his side in his sleep. I bend down on my knees and hold his arms with both of my arms. "You're going to be okay, I'm going to be okay, and so is Mason" I squeeze him slightly. I hear footsteps behind me.

"You seem pretty harmless," remarks the dark skinned woman sarcastically as she comes close to us. She's ahead of everyone by a lot, I look down at my cloths; they are stained in blood of both Masons and walkers. I look down at Masons body, and the woman's face realizes what the blood is from.

"I'm talking the boy to Hershel," she announces as she comes closer and scoops up Mason in her arms. I'm impressed, Mason was strong and tall for his age, he weighed about 115 pounds. She walked towards where they came and out the gate back to the prison.

"Wait! Where are you taking him?" I yell after her, my voice cracks in mid sentence. The woman stops and turns around, and speaks very clearly "Somewhere safe".


	5. Chapter 5

**New chapter! Hope y'all like it, excuse some minor ****grammar mistakes.**

As the mysterious lady walked up the fields with Mason, I just sat there. I didn't know who these people were, or what they where capable of, yet I let him go with them. His blonde head hung back over her arms as she walked, the wave of hair bounced up and down as she jogged up. Henry clutched to my side, I didn't know what was going on with him, a day ago he was moody and annoying, but as soon as I yelled at him he just snapped into how he was before, it was weird. I wonder if I actually made an effect? Wait no, this is me we're talking about, and I had the authority of a four year old. It must have been something else. I held Aaron in my arms, he squirmed and giggled, completely unaware of what was going on. I looked down at the child's pudgy little face; so innocent, so sweet, so pure, that'll change soon enough I sighed sadly. A Figure loomed over me, he held obvious authority, he must be the leader, Rick? Yeah, it was defiantly Rick. He seemed to look through me; this guy was experienced with people. He kneeled down, and looked up at me, his gun was crossed over in his arm. He tilted his head slightly,

"Listen up, I'm going to walk you, personally I might add, all the way to our home, our home is where I'm going to ask you some questions, you try anything and I mean anything, I will not hesitate" He gets up and points to the prison. I follow his hand, it seemed very large, lights seemed to glow in places throughout the prison but others remained pitch black, people must be asleep. I wondered how many people lived there, probably enough to kill us for sure. "Y'all understand me," he ads turning his head at us, I nod slowly.

"Yes sir!" Henry squeaks frightfully, I could tell the brown haired man scared him. Rick raised his eyebrow him. The woman named Carol gestured for us to walk up with them. She was going to go behind us, Rick probably in front. These guys were seriously going to try and flank us?

"Henry, hold Aaron, I'm getting the bags" I carefully handed the infant to Henry as turned to get our belongings

"We'll pick up your bags later, Rick wants to take you straight to the cell block" Carol states awkwardly but with authority. I turn again and raise my eyebrow.

"You sleep in the cells?" I ask, I instantly regret the attitude I used, but screw it I have the right to sound surprised, what kind of people sleep in cells, I have to look out for Henry and Aaron, especially Mason. I walk back to her and Henry. Instead of replying the women just turns and walks forward. I take Aaron from Henry and grab his hand. We follow up back to the prison; Its early morning, but still pitch black outside the only sound in range is the shuffle of our feet and the dead's.

"Is Mason going to be alright" Henry says, I look down at him; Blood drenches his shirttail and surrounding areas. The ends of his ashy brown hair stick together with sticky red, his face is shaped in complete fear. I forget sometimes that he's so young, with little to no experience with the real world; the past week, even year seemed to make me think he was our age, maybe older. But ever since I unreeled on him he seemed to revert back, it was nice but what if this made him weaker? Lost in my though I didn't notice the boy running towards us. The boy ran straight to Rick and planted himself directly in front of him.

"Dad!...I saw!…..Lizzie!...Running through the hall…..she….said…something about….new people!" He painted drastic, his chest heaved. "Then I saw like Michonne with this guy, he was covered in blood" he began after his breath evened. His ice blue eyes darted to Henry then me. He stared at me, was he supposed to stare at someone this long. The boy had messy mop of brown hair, he was wearing a blue t-shirt and boxers, he seemed to just have gotten out of bed. I awkwardly stared back at him, green against blue. That crossbow dude had already stared me down, I wasn't going to give in with this guy, he was my age. Rick and Henry seemed to look back and forth between us. After about forty-five seconds his gaze drifted to Aaron.

"Is that…. a…. baby?" he asked quizzically, his eyes went to Rick for the explanation.

"Uh…yeah, so listen Carl, we gotta to get these people to a cell, the boy they where with was shot, we got to get Hershel" Rick says then follows with "Just go to bed Carl".

"Wait you have a doctor here? Can he help Mason!"? Henry yells with surprise, he turns towards me, "Piper, they can fix him right? He'll be okay right? Just like you said!" Henry starts breathing in heavily. I turn to Henry; I grab his shoulders with my one open hand.

"Henry calm down" He keeps breathing hard, holy fucking shit! He was having a panic attack, "Calm down" I repeat "Come on, just breath", Panic attacks were common in my family, I had them, and so did my mother. Before the end of the world Henry and my father were the only ones in my family who didn't get them. I had hoped it would remain like this, I guess Henry had to develop them. This was bad. "Henry, remember when I went to the doctor, remember what he said to dad?". My mind instantly went back to the memory.

_We walked down the hallway of Kings County Memorial hospital, My Dad held me as we walked, previously that day I had the first of my first panic attacks, we walked to the second lobby, the one for "not serious" patients and family and friends who were waiting for the news. I slumped in the nearest plastic chair with my arms crossed; Henry trailed behind my dad. I looked around the hospital; it was crowded and hectic, doctors surrounded a man being pulled in a bed, med students and policemen hurried behind. He wore a Georgia state police uniform, blood stained the area near his chest, he must have been shot. My dad carefully sat besides me. _

"_Hey darlin' you doing okay? He asked with ease, he rubbed my back slowly. He knew I was embarrassed. I had panicked in the middle of lunch. Everyone had looked at me, the whole lunchroom it was completely humiliating. The attention had given me another panic attack and that's when they called my dad. I looked at him, his eyebrows furrowed in concern._

"_I'm fine." I reply emotionless, I made it clear that I was in no clear mood to talk. My Father leaned back down in his chair and sighed; Henry finally reached us and weakly sat in the chair next to me, Henry was pulled out of school to come with us to hostpital._

"_Well, I'm goin' to go check us in for the appointment" Dad said, he awkwardly sat up and walked to the front desk. Henry scooted up to more; he looked up at me shyly. _

"_Are you going to die," he whispered. I looked back down at him, his face looked empty and shallow._

"_What, no of course not!" I said humorously, "I'm going to be fine, it's just a small condition" I smiled._

"_Really, are you sure?" he asked again._

"_Sure I am, Mom has it remember" I nudged his rib with my elbow "she's doing okay isn't she?" Henry smiles and nods, he rested his head on my shoulder. _

"_HARRIS" the lady at the counter shouted, I guess I was up. I got up and walked towards my dad. He smiled at me, then turned and put his hand on my shoulder, we walked to room 14B. The smell of tangy anesthetic filled my nostrils, I almost threw up right then and there. The Doctor gestured for me to sit on the patted bed; he began to preform numerous tests, then talked to my dad and me about what had happened. He then gave us tips and ways to prevent or stop another one from happening again. One of which was some simple breathing exercise, another was just to realize what was happening. After he went through the list, he followed us out as we walked back out. He and my dad where talking about ways to help if I was ever having an attack in a public place. I didn't want to here them talk so I walked ahead. Henry was sitting next to a black haired woman crying, she was cradling a kid in a plaid shirt about my age. _

"_Is…dad…. going to be okay" the boy sniffled as he wiped his nose. The mother stroked his head with her hand. _

"_Yeah, of course baby, Shane's with him, he'll be fine" the woman said as the kid clutched up to the mother. Henry looked extremely uncomfortable, he had his shoulders lifted and had his body positioned away from the crying duo. _

"_Henry come on, the doc's got Piper some anxiety pills" Our dad called as he shook the orange vial of bills. I blushed and covered my face; we then walked out of the hospital. _

I snapped back to reality, Henry was hyperventilating in front of me. His hair shook violently he breathed.

"Henry, listen your having a panic attack! Remember, I have them all the time. You just have to breath, your going to be fine" I said, Henry kept up his breathing. I tried to comfort him with Aaron in my arms.

"Like…when…we ….went ….to …the…hospital….." he said in between breaths, I nodded. This calmed him down a little bit, I handed him the water bottle.

"Here, drink this" I commanded him; he took the water and gulped it down. His breath calmed down. But only a little, Rick looked alarmed as I tried to calm Henry down. He stood there as Carol walked towards us.

"Hey, Henry right? I'm going to help you out a bit okay?" Carol said softly, she held his shoulder and kneeled down in front of him. I walked backwards a few steps, I felt helpless as the older women saved my brother. Aaron started to cry in my arms; I bumped him up and down, shit the pacifier was by the gate in the leather bag, i cradle Aaron as I rocked him to the side.

"Shhhh Aaron, it's going to be okay" I whispered as Carol calmed Henry down.

"Just look at the gate, you see that" Carol pointed to where we walked from. Henry nodded. "Just focus on something, don't worry this happens all the time".

"Really" Huffed Henry

"Oh yeah sure" Carol coaxed "in fact, one of the girls I look after goes through this all the time" After about five minuets of Carol calming him down he seemed to be alright. I walked over to where Carol kneeled and Henry stood. I turned to Carol

"Thanks, for….well just thanks, I normally have pills for this sort of thing, but we ran out, and….this has….well….never happened to him before" I stated in shame, I couldn't even help my brother but a total stranger could. I felt like complete shit. Carol looked up at me.

"Of course" she stated. Henry looked down at his feet as he muttered something I didn't ask him to repeat it, I remember how embarrassed I was after my first panic attack. Rick walked towards us then pulled Carol aside, they muttered something in the distance as I stood there with Henry, Aaron and the Boy.

"Henry, are you okay" I asked with concern.

"Well I'm not dead" he muttered, I laughed, I couldn't believe he even remembered that. He looked up at me and smiled, he then reached forward and touched the crying baby in my arm.

"That's not funny," said the boy hostilely, I turned to him and raised my eyebrow.

"Excuse Me," I asked

"I said it's not funny to make jokes about being dead!" he stormed back to the prison interior. I huffed to myself, jeez what was his problem, I looked down at Henry and smirked.

Carol and Rick seemed to glare at me I then looked back at them. "Its an inside joke" I stated. They're expressions hardened "When I had my first attack, he thought I was going to die…so like…. when he said he's not dead…it meant like…you know.."

"Oh" they said in union "Just don't make those jokes in front of…. well people…especially Carl, we've lost a lot of people…" Rick said slowly, Carol shifted uncomfortably, so his name was Carl, damn that boy had attitude. I shrugged. Rick started to walk through the courtyard I walked forward as Aaron struggled in my arms. These people were weird I, but hey I would act strange if a fourteen year old girl appeared with a dying boy, an eight year old and a baby.

**Next chapter in progress, but heyyyy we get to meet more the gang...well not yet, it just Carl. When people said he never stays in the house, they were right! he doesn't even stay in the cell either! anyway comment,follow, and all those things. Any support fuels me. 3333**


	6. Character Review

**I feel as though I should clear up some things about the story; things such as the characters that survived in my story that haven't in the TV show/comic (maybe), and like things that I changed, such as age, I probably wont change some things such as attitude but I might a little. And just a touch up on all the characters, even the SUPER minor ones, so as the 9****th**** doctor says so very wisely "Allons y."**

Characters**:** ages**: **comic or show**: **alive/dead**:** OC/OOC/other**: **relationship: comment about character

[In order of appearance then family]

**Piper Harris:** 14: neither: alive: OC: Henrys sister: well you know the story

**Henry Harris:** 8 (almost 9): neither: alive: OC: Pipers brother: I repeat, you know the story

**Aaron Brooks:** almost 1: neither: alive: OC? (I mean he's only a baby, not much of a "character" but hey, he's original): Abigail's son: sigh, seriously I have to repeat, you know the story.

**Abigail Brooks**: early 30s: neither: dead: OC: Aarons mother: she's kind of dead, not much of a character.

**Mason Reed: **14: neither: alive (maybe hehe): OC: Reese's brother: Well I mean he got shot… and you know the story.

**Reese Reed:** 27: neither: dead: OC: Masons brother: Must suck being dead, huh?

_(I'm not going to mention the guy from the cabin, I mean Abigail and Reese were pretty minor but this guy is waaaaaay too minor)_

**Lizzie Samuels: **14: TV: alive: Property of AMC (though I will be editing her little walker problem, not completely but enough): Mika's sister, Carol's adoptive daughter: She's pretty swell, a little troubled, but swell indeed.

**Mika Samuels: **9: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Lizzie's sister, Carol's adoptive daughter: Not much is known of Mika in the show, apart from that she's an adorable little sweetheart, so I will personally be developing her further.

**Rick Grimes: **Late 30's to early 40's: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Father to Carl and Judith: PAPA GRIMES FOR DA WIN

**Carl Grimes:** 14: alive: TV(might mix some comic carl up in this bitch) Property of AMC: Son of Rick, Brother of Judith: SON O GRIMES FOR DA WIN

**Judith Grimes:** like 1 I think? Maybe younger: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Daughter of Rick, Sister of Carl: LITTLE GRIMES FOR DA WIN

**Michonne:** Early 30s: TV: alive: Property of AMC: no relation: (Well all I have to say is, she's a boss ass bitch

**Carol Peletier**: Early 40s: TV (defiantly not comic, that chicks a fucking psycho): alive: Property of AMC: Wife of deceased Ed (do not rest in peace, Mother of deceased Sophia (rest in peace sweetie), adoptive mother of Lizzie and Mika: she's pretty cool

**Daryl Dixon: **Early 40s: TV (duh): alive: Property of AMC: Brother of Merle and Gabriel: I don't know if I'll pair him up with anyone, I'll decide later, honestly I wouldn't count on it.

**Merle Dixon: **Late 40s to early 50s: TV(duh): alive (YAYAYAYA): : Property of AMC: Brother of Daryl and Gabriel : his name is Merle and he shall be mine, I'm totally keeping him *evil laugh (it's a finding Nemo reference lol)

**Gabriel Dixon:** Mid 40s: neither: dead: OC: Brother of Merle and Daryl: He is the third and middle brother of the Dixons, he left the group in Atlanta to look for Merle more, he finds him and leaves in the truck with him _(you guys remember when they're truck went missing in season 1)_, the governor finds both of them, while Merle is given his position Gabriel is a simple foot solider, Both Merle and Gabriel escape with Ricks group from Woodberry they both leave with Daryl, the three Dixons together, when they return to the prison, Gabe basically follows Merle everywhere, he goes with him to trade of Michonne. While they let Michonne gov. (despite Gabe's protests), they both go and try to assassinate the governor, when the governor corners them he bites Gabe's finger and shoots Gabe (basically what happens to Merle in season 3) Merle is in the other house on the other side shooting at the governor's men. He see's the governor leave Gabe's hideout and runs back to the prison. Merle and Daryl return to the "shooting place" and find Gabe chowing down on some guy (did you know it was the TV character Ben) they then fight the tears and then try and kill their beloved brother.

**Beth Greene:** 18: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Daughter of Hershel and sister of Maggie and she's basically the adoptive mother of Judith: Beth's pretty cool

**Hershel Greene:** Early 70's: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Father of Beth and Maggie: not much comment.

**Maggie Greene: **24: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Daughter of Hershel, sister of Beth, fiancé of Glenn: I WILL MARRY GLENN AND MAGGIE IN MY STORY! IT MUST BE DONE

**Glenn Rhee: **Mid 20's: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Fiancé of Maggie: I REPEAT, I WILL MARRY GLENN AND MAGGIE IN MY STORY

**Tyreese: **Early 40's: TV: alive: Property of AMC: Brother of Sasha: I'm not to enthusiastic on Ty.

**Sasha:** Late 20s: alive: TV: Property of AMC: Sister of Tyreese: She's alright I guess

**Bob Stookey:** Mid 30s: Property of AMC: none: He's cool I like Bob, though he an alcoholic.

**Andrea**: 37: Comic/TV mix: alive: Property of AMC/Robert K. : Sister of Amy, Kevin and Ellie: I really like Andrea and though I know her death was necessary I wanted to keep her for myself. (hehehehe, she's all mine)

**Amy:** 22: TV(sort of, I mean she dies really early on): alive (yeah, yeah I know I'm being soft with character deaths, but come on! She's so pretty!): Property of AMC/OCC: Sister to Andrea, Kevin and Ellie: Amy becomes good friends with Beth and Maggie; She is a softer and kinder version of Andrea and is a main comforter of Carol when Sophia dies. Her and her sister Ellie have an unusual bond, since Andrea takes the role of Ellie's mother Amy is full on sister. Though they do fight a lot, as sisters do.

**Kevin: **19: none: dead: OC (Kevin is mine all mine, hisss): Brother to Andrea, Amy and Ellie: He basically takes the place of TV show Amy, gets bitten at the fish fry, Andrea has to shoot her little brother with Amy and Ellie crying beside them. (Effecting all of them, not only Andrea like when Amy died in the show/comic)

**Ellie: **14: none: alive: OC: Sister to Andrea, Kevin and Amy: Youngest sister of Amy and Andrea. Became best friends with Sophia, then mute for a while when she came out of the barn, and would only talk to Beth and Lori and on occasions Amy. On the road she gradually sparked a friendship with Carl due to the loss/disappearance of Andrea. She never seemed to like the prison and spent most of the time staring through the gate at the walkers and wandering the prison (killing some of her first walkers). When Lori died she reverted back to fragile mute and would only talk to Amy. When Andrea returns she gradually starts talking again, and instead of going back to Woodberry she stays at the prison due to Amy and Ellie. When Merle, Daryl and Gabriel return, she finds Merle looking for drugs and sparks an unlikely friendship.


	7. Chapter 6

**I made a new Chapter! excuse the grammar like always lol, Comment/favorite/follow please. Any support is much appreciated.**

We walked in to the prison; it was dark, really dark. The only thing I could see was Rick reaching to his belt pulling out a flashlight. Where were they taking us? He gleamed it through the hallway as he lead us to a cellblock. A faded black "C" marked the front of the doorway, I looked around, small patterns of dried blood marked the floors, it seemed to be a small room that connected to the cell block, there was a small holding cell to the right, where they going to put is in there? We walked forward, to the cell gate that leads to the cells; Rick brought up keys from his pocket and opened the cell gate.

"Rick? Is that you?" a small voice said from the second nearest cell. A girl about eighteen-nineteen walked out of the cellblock. She had blonde hair in a high ponytail, she held a sleeping baby in her arms. I stared at it. Another baby? If they had a baby they must have supplies for it! They could spare some right!?

"Piper look, they…they have another baby" Henry said meekly as he tugged my shirt. Aaron made out a weak cry; the noise woke the other child. It moaned happily in the girl's arms. I wish Aaron were that happy.

"Oh, shit, I'm so sorry" I say, I cradled Aaron quickly, "He's just hungry". I said, hinting that if they had anything, we desperately need it. I looked down at the infant; his face was had gotten less chubby over the last week. I wasn't sure if that was because he was growing, or just his lack of food, either way it worried me.

"Oh its fine she goes to sleep in seconds, we have formula if ya'll need some" The girl says smiling, the baby in her arms gurgles and touches her face with its arms. The girl has a clear farmers girl accent, she wears a white tank top over a pair of dotted pajama pants. I smile with gratitude as she walks back into her cell. These guys where pretty comfortable here, if they could wear pajamas without doubting their life for the next day.

"Now wait just a minuet" I hear a voice say, I turn, oh jeez, the crossbow man is back. I seriously did not like this guy. He walks through the door, or is it a cell gate? Whatever, he turns to Rick. "We can't give them food until we know who they are, we should go get Merle to talk to them" he states, the girl comes out of the cell with a disgusted look on her face.

"I'm not giving them food, I'm giving the starving baby food, Christ Daryl have a heart," she says as she hands me a bottle full of formula. I flash a glare at the crossbow man as I give Aaron the bottle. So this guys name was Daryl, fitting name for a hick. "And plus, though Merle has done his part I wouldn't trust him alone with these kids" she adds spitefully.

"Thank you" I turn to the girl. "We ran out of formula yesterday, and even before that we were rationing it" She nods as I hear Aaron greedily gulp down the bottle. Rick awkwardly shifts in his place.

"Beth could you put Judith back to bed, we got to talk to these people" He says as he gestures for us to come up the stairs.

"They're just kids Rick" laughs Beth "What are they going to do" her smile fades as she see's Ricks serious expression. "Oh come on" she responds to his face, "Look at that girl, she's like what? Fourteen?" she walks forward and looks at Henry, he nuzzles himself against me. "…And look at him, how olds he? Seven?" she tilts her head at Rick.

"I'm eight…" Henry mutters, Beth looks down at him,

"Your not going to try anything are you little man" she asks, Henry looks up at her and shakes his head, small dry drops of blood shake from his hair.

"No Ma'am" he says clearly, Beth smiles and turns to Rick.

"See…" She looks at smiles and me. "Are you going to pull anything," she asks. I pause to think for a moment, I look her in the eye, well what can I say, I obviously can't say yes; otherwise they'll kill us, or worse throw us out. I can't say no either, what if they try and hurt us?

"Well I won't start anything if that's what you're asking" I turn to look at Rick and Carol. "But don't you dare think I wont protect my family" I say darkly. Ricks mouth twitches at the corners and Carol nods her head.

"Good or bad, that the attitude to have…..and you have my word we wont hurt you or your group" he replies as he rubs rough beard. "Well you guys must be tired, I sure as hell am, I suggest you go upstairs, there's an empty cell at the end" he points to the higher row of cells.

"We can take the baby, it seems like a lot of responsibly for someone of your age" Carol says as she steps forward. I hold Aaron tighter.

"No, No that's okay" I start "His mother would want him to stay with me and Henry, and no offence but I just met you guys." Beth walks forward in front of me and looks at us.

"Wait, so he isn't your brother?" Rick asks curiously, he shifts his position.

"No." I replied stiffly

"What about that boy you came with" Asks Beth, he steps forward and looks at me.

"Who Mason?" Asks Henry; he smiles, when he remembers Masons state his smile fades "He's our friend" he looks up at Rick. "Will he be okay?"

"I don't know son" Rick replies he places his hand on Henrys shoulder "But we got Hershel taking a look at him" I hoped whoever this Hershel guy is can help Mason. I was worried about him; he kept acting irrationally, especially after Reese's death. What would happen when he woke up? _If _he woke up, what would he think? Would he think we abandoned him?

"I'm sure daddy'll fix him up just fine" Beth says reassuringly "You guys look like you haven't slept in days, you should go up" I nod and grab Henrys hand we head up stairs. We walk passed cells; blankets and curtains covered the doors for privacy. I rock Aaron back and forth once we get into the last cell. I look around; it's small and dirty, but compared to the woods it's a palace. There's a bunk bed pressed against the wall, Henry climbs up to the top bunk.

"Whoa, its actually pretty comfy" he says bouncing up and down. He lays back spread out in relaxation.

"Go to sleep Henry" I laugh, I hear him sigh with relief as he turns over and falls asleep. I sit on the bottom bunk, with Aaron in my arms. How was I supposed to sleep with this kid? I scoot backwards against the wall of the cell. I sit there a just cradling Aaron as he drifts to sleep. After a while two shadows loom in the doorway. I look at the figures. One is in front leaning against the doorframe; the other stands behind slumped against the balcony rail with its arms crossed. It's that girl, Lizzie. She wears a long grey shirt and a pair of pajama shorts, She pulls the second figure into the light, its Carl, it looks like he was forced to be here, Oh jeez this has to be good.

"Hey" she says smiling as she piers through the doorway.

"Hey yourself" I reply, why are they here? I thought from how Carl stormed off he hated my guts. Her smile fades,

"Well you're a joy" she remarks "Anyway, I thought I should welcome you, there aren't many kids our age here, everyone else is asleep" she nudges Carl's ribs with her elbow "And this boy doesn't even count as a kid, he spends way to much time with the adults". I smile sarcastically.

"Well, thanks for dropping by" I say as I shift forward with Aaron, I really didn't want to talk with people right now. Lizzie of course doesn't pick up on my attitude or maybe she just doesn't care, I can't be sure, she walks into my room. Carl remains by the door.

"Lizzie shouldn't we get back? Mika will wake up in an hour, if she see's us up she'll tell Carol, then my dad'll find out and I'll be stuck farming for the rest of my life" Carl says. Lizzie brushes Carl of with a wave of a hand. She turns to me.

"Soooo, what's your name?" she asks drawing out the "so", she sits on the side of my bed. I look at her, and sigh.

"Piper" I murmur, the sleeping baby in my arms stirs. Lizzie looks at Aaron, then to Carl.

"Hey Carl, looks like your sisters got a new friend" She smiles as Carl grunts in the doorway.

"Sister?" I ask, Lizzie looks at me

"Didn't you see the little baby downstairs with Beth?" she asks confused, so that little baby wasn't Beth's?

"That's your sister, really? I though it was Beth's daughter" I say as I look up at Carl "Why isn't your mother with her?" I ask, his expression hardens.

"She's dead," he says as he glares at me. Shit. Why didn't I think of that, of course but seen as they were cooped up in this prison all safe and protected by the walls I didn't think they lost anyone. I mean come on! This place was a goldmine! He kept glaring at me. I sit up and look at him.

"Oh, Well seen as while the rest of us are fighting for our lives out in the open, and you are in here, protected by these _enormous_ walls, I figured you know…" I say bluntly, Lizzie shifts uncomfortably next to me. Wow I was really coming of unlikeable.

"We have lost people" he says gravely "We weren't here the whole time". I feel bad, this kids probably went through everything I went through, maybe more.

"Yeah…sorry…. your right…. I shouldn't have said anything" I say apologetically. "That was uncalled for, who am I to doubt other peoples losses" Carl looks at Aaron, his expression softens. He sighs.

"Y'know we have another crib, when Judith was smaller she had one that I found her but she out grew it, we had to get another one" He says looking at Aaron. "He looks about the right size".

"Oh, right yeah, I was about to ask for like a crate or a basket or something, but a crib…thanks" I say, wow this prison was getting better and better. Carl walks out of the room. Lizzie looks at Aaron, she smiles.

"He's so cute, what's his name? Can I hold him?" she asks, her blonde hair falls over his face. I relax a little these people were okay. I smile at her,

"His name's Aaron, and sure" I say as I hand him over, she holds him delicately. The child nuzzles against her in his sleep. She laughs.

"I think he likes me, Beth and Carol never let me hold Judith," she says, I laugh to myself, this girl's problems, damn. I here a stirring from the bunk above us, Henrys head dangles from the side of the bunk.

"What's…what's going on, I hear people talking" he mutters sleepily, Lizzie and I look up at him. "Oh…. hey, your that girl" he smiles, his ashy brown hair falls over his eyes.

"Henry this is Lizzie, now go back to sleep" I smile at him; He waves softly from the top bunk and he rolls his eyes and flops back down on the bed.

"Love you," he murmurs before he falls back asleep. I'm feeling a little more comfortable in this prison.

"Your brothers adorable" she giggles, "He reminds me of my little sister, she's around the same age" she says, I look at her as if asking her to tell more, "Her names Mika, she's sleeping back in our cell" she nods her head towards the wall, then brushes her hair back behind her ear. "Y'know I'm glad I found you guys" she says looking at Aaron.

"Yeah, I'm glad you found us too" I laugh "But, what were you doing by the fence this early?" I ask

"I…" she pauses and thinks for a moment "Well….I…I was just looking at the people" she says finally

"People?" I ask, "Wait, what people?" What the hell was this girl talking about?

"Y'know the ones by the fence" she says, her face seemed to ask what was wrong with me, as if I was the one with the problem. We pause for a moment. The only things by the fence were the walkers pressed up against the metal.

"You mean the biters," I say "The dead people" I wonder if I was missing something here. Did the people here know more then me about what was happening? Lizzie's face distorts into angered confusion.

"They're not…. they just need a—" she starts as Carl appears in the doorway; he's heaving a giant crib through the door.

"I got…the…crib" Carl pants, "it was…All the way…. on the other side…. By the…. library…" he says in-between breaths. I forget my conversation with Lizzie for a moment, because wow this prison was huge it must have been far; he must have carried that thing for a while.

"My hero" I say with sarcasm, I smile at him to show my actual gratitude. He smiles back as he places the crib near the wall opposite the bunk bed. I guess he doesn't hate me now; my face heats up as he smiles at me. I look down at the floor when I get up and place Aaron in the crib, he lays there in his sleep and I can't help notice his resemblance to Abigail, his mother. They had the same nose, chin and blonde hair, I became overwhelmed with sadness, I wished Abigail were here.

"Well we should leave you to sleep, I bet you haven't slept in days" Lizzie says.

"Yeah, I'm exhausted" I say; I suddenly realize how hard it is to keep my eyes open.

"We'll see you tomorrow and show you around" she says as she pulls a waving Carl through the door. They seemed cool I thought as I lay on my bed, that Lizzie girl was obviously a little confused about the walkers, but hey I bet its nothing. It must have been from sleeping on the forest floor for more then a week, but these beds were mighty comfy. I closed my eyes and thought of the days events. Of everything, despite Masons condition, we lucked out. Henry was safe, Aaron was safe, I was safe and Mason was in good hands. I fall asleep to Henrys breathing from the bunk above.

**I'm thinking of writing some shorts, based off some of the characters. Like with their point of view, or just some alternate things such and Lizzie and Carl's friendship. Comment any tips or opinions on that.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Another chapter, sorry its a bit short. Im working on a side project that will have to do with some of the OC's i mentioned in my character list. Hope y'all ****enjoy! Comment/favorite/follow if you like, any support at all means a lot.**

I awoke to the sound of crying. I heard Henry shift from the bunk above me; the creaking of the bunk bed was new. I was used to rushing to Aaron when he cried, in fear of the drawing in of walkers. But instead I just groaned and slowly got up, maybe this was a good sign, I actually felt safe here. I walked to the small crib that was obtained by Carl. Looking down at Aaron I realized he was sound asleep, his small arms clutch against the bars of the crib. Huh. Who was crying? Realization slowly flowed into my mind. I remember the baby from last night or was it this morning? I can't be sure, Carl's little sister, I'm pretty sure her name was Judith. The crying continued for a few minuets then faded into the distance, still this awoke Aaron, he whimpered from his crib. That poor child, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the small thing, he won't even remember his mother. I bent over the crib and picked him up, I felt the small child's warmth against my chest. I rocked him up and down. "Shhh, Aaron its okay" I whisper near his ears. I rub the back of his head softly until I remember my mother saying to never touch the top of a baby's head. Oh…. shit…I abruptly stop rubbing his head. He calms down as I walk a step over to the bunk beds and reach up with one of my hands. I shake Henrys arm.

"W-waat" he groans sleepily, he turns to face me, his hair messy and disheveled. "Is everything okay?" he says.

"Yeah, its just time to get up buddy" I say quietly, resting Aaron against my shoulder and choler bone. I pat the baby's back lightly. "Come on downstairs, I'm going to ask for some formula". My stomach grumbles loudly, I laugh "And maybe for some food for us." Henry smiles and nods and starts to make his way off the bed. As soon as he gets down, I start walking out of the cell. As I walk down the path towards the stairs, I look out of the barred windows that marked the apposing wall. It was mid to late afternoon from the sight of things; we must have slept through the morning and afternoon. It made sense I mean we got to the prison at about 4 in the morning.

"Wow, we slept all day" Henry remarks whipping the sleep from his eyes. I look at him and grin. I'm glad we could finally sleep in somewhat peace, without talking shifts or keeping one eye open. We weren't entirely safe, we didn't know these people, but from what I saw they seemed all right. We walk down the stairs, I look around, the cellblock seemed empty.

"Stay here…" I murmur to Henry. I walk to the nearest of the cells and peer through, its empty. "Lets go find that Beth girl, I heard the baby crying like five minuets ago, then we can go see if Masons okay, I remember Rick saying something about some Hershel doctor dude" I say.

"You looking for me" a voice said from behind, I slowly turn. Beth is standing there holding Judith; behind her is an old man with crutches. She smiles at me. "You guys finally up, huh?" The man with crutches hobbles forward, his hair is completely white and tied up in a ponytail. I look down, wait…his…leg is…

"G-gone." Henry stammers "Piper, that man has no leg" he says again. I smack Henrys stomach with my free arm. "Ouch!" he yells annoyed as he walks back a few steps. I adjust my grip on Aaron as he giggles in my arms.

"Don't be rude Henry!" I hiss, the man with crutches chuckles loudly. I look at him; I see a joyful glint in his eyes, he kind of looks like Santa.

"Its quite alright" he says, "I'm used to it" he hobbles right in front of us; Beth remains by the doorway holding Judith. He pauses in front of me then shifts his weight to his left crutch and reaches out his hand. "Hershel Greene" he says, I shift Aaron in my arm to shake the hand. His light brown eyes glinted.

"Wait, you're the doctor?" Henry says, raising his eyebrow. "But your so o—"

"—ld fashioned" I laugh nervously "With those crutches" I smile at Hershel weakly while I reach behind me to punch Henry in the gut.

"Ouch Piper, stop hitting me!" he hisses as he doubles over.

"Then stop being rude" I respond with gritted smile, he walks forward and glares at me. Hershel chuckles softly and turns to Beth.

"Reminds me of you and Maggie" he smiles, he turns back to Henry and me. "Yes I am, I expect you want to know about your friend" he sighs. Wait why did he sigh, was there bad news, how was he doing?

"Yeah, Mason! Is he okay!"? I blurt, my eyes dart from Hershel to Beth, neither of them look at me.

"Now don't be alarmed" he starts, his face shows sympathy, "I treated the wound… you guys were lucky, the bullet passed through without hitting any arteries but…." he stops and looks at the floor.

"What's the matter? What's wrong with him?" I ask, step forward so that I'm directly in front of Hershel.

"Well, like I said the bullet passed right through…he…lost a lot of blood" Hershel grimaces. Panic sweeps through me, what happens now? If he lost all that blood…

"So…. what now…?" I ask slowly, I tilt my head slightly in. Hershel looks at Beth, and then shifts his eyes to Henry and I. He clears his throat.

"Well, he's in stable condition now, but the only way he'll make it through is if he gets a blood transfusion…" Hershel says gravely "Unfortunately, we don't know his blood type, and we don't have any transfusion equipment" Hershel looks down at the floor. Henry looks up at me and tugs my shirt helm.

"Piper, what's a blood transfusion," Henry asks innocently, his green eyes stare into me. I look down at him.

"Well, um…its when…. you get someone blood…. and um….you give it to someone…..who…lost a lot of blood….like Mason" I say mumbling. Henry's eyes light up and he smiles at me and reaches out his arm.

"Then take my blood and give it to him, he'll be fine!" he says with innocence and slight hope. I sigh sadly.

"It doesn't work like that…. your blood type needs to match, and we need special equipment to give and take the blood" I say, Henrys face morphs into confusion.

"Why does it need to match, can't I just give him blood? Just take my blood with a needle and put it him why do we need equipment?" Henry asks carefully.

"I…Listen Henry I don't know!" I muster forcing back tears. Mason was going to die. But…wait…I.I know Masons blood type.

"A positive! Wait, Hershel!" I start, "I know Masons blood type, we can help him now right?" I end with panic. I can hear the desperation in my voice, normally I would call my self pathetic for sounding so desperate, but this…this was serious.

"Yes…" Hershel looks at me with confusion "You know his blood type?" he asks, I nod slowly. Hershel rubs his head with his left arm. "In order for him to pull through, he needs a matching blood type". I nod again.

"Me and Henry are both O negative" I say, "That works right?" this could defiantly work, we had the blood we just had to give it to him and he would be fine, right? Henry looks at me with confusion.

"What's O negative?" He asks. Damn this kid seriously knew nothing, I mean I couldn't expect him to know all this, he's 8 but hey, I did. I used to watch a ton a doctor and criminal shows back when we had working TV's…and live people. So I had a basic knowledge of things. The only problem was, I didn't know how any of the stuff I knew worked or really what it meant. I really didn't feel like explaining this to Henry, so I waved him off.

"Not now Henry" I say still looking at Hershel. His eyes widen.

"Yes, it does work." Hershel says, "But we still don't have the right supplies" I let out a breath.

"B-but we can get the supplies right! You guys have been through a lot! This has to have happened before!" I raise my voice in desperation. Beth walks forward to her father and gets his attention.

"Daddy, what about when Carl got shot" she says softly. Wow, Carl got shot… that boy really was tough as nails.

"Wait, Carl got shot, but he seems so…normal…like he doesn't walk funny or anything… and he's pretty strong" I start; Beth raises an eyebrow at me.

"How would you know?" she asks, I shift uncomfortably.

"He…he…um got me… I mean...He got Aaron…. a crib last night" I mumble quietly. Beth smirks at me. Henry looks at me.

"What really? I only saw the blonde girl," He says with confusion. I smile weakly at Beth and Hershel.

"Yeaaaaaah…..please don't tell on them, they were just welcoming us" I plead. Beth gives me a friendly smile.

"Don't worry, I won't tell" she puts her hand against her mouth and makes a zipping motion. I give her a gratifying smile.

"Thanks, but if Carl got shot, then you have the stuff right?" I ask, please please make this work out. If Carl can get shot and get treated, then so can Mason. Hershel pulls Beth to the side and whispers with her. I make out some of the words: _Farm…overrun…to far…not worth it_. I clench my hands to my sides, so Mason wasn't worth it!

"So you have the stuff," I repeat, already knowing the answer. Hershel and Beth simultaneously turn to look at me.

"Um…. well…. sweetie…" Beth starts shifting Judith to her left side, I shake my head.

"I heard something about a farm?" I say. Shit Mason, pretty ironic huh? To leave a farm only to be shot, then find out the only hope for your life is at a farm. Beth and Hershel exchange sad glances. "What? What's wrong with the farm, if its too far for you guys, just give me directions I can go," I say in response to their looks.

Beth looks at me solemnly "Its not that, it just…. well, the farm…it's our…it was our farm" she looks at Hershel sadly. "We lost a lot of people there…. and before we found the, we got overrun by a herd of…of…walkers, the barn was set on fire…and for all we know the walkers are still there" Beth finishes and hugs Judith close. I can understand why they don't want to go back, but I honestly wouldn't risk Masons life on a hunch that walkers are still at the farm.

"Like I said, if you could lend me a car and directions, I can go myself" I say as I shrug my shoulders, Beth shakes her head, her blonde hair sways and Henry tenses up. He grabs my arm.

"No! Piper, we just got here! You can't leave! You can't leave me alone!" Henry stressed his voice breaking.

"You shouldn't leave, don't worry, we'll send someone in an hour to get the supplies" Hershel promises, nodding his head at Henry as if reassuring him that I wont leave.

"Y'all wanna go outside" Beth proposes "Most of the kids have their lessons with Carol, but I'm pretty sure Carl is out their with Rick" she smiles kindly "C'mon I'll show you, this place is breathtaking" She walks out of the cellblock, with us at her tail. The white concrete surrounds us as we walk into the dark hallway.

"How?" Henry says innocently, Beth smiles at him, we pass a dark room.

"We can pretend its normal here" on queue a bunch of guys cut us of carrying assault rifles, Beth frowns and looks at us apologetically. "Well…sort of normal…what I mean is…we can survive here". She looks at us directly "But we can only survive if we work together…not apart".

**Thanks for reading :)))))**


	9. Chapter 8

**WaDDUP, sorry for the delay in writing (I'm on vacation), but here ya go, we will be experiencing some POV changes (yay) so hope y'all enjoy. Comment/follow/favorite all support is greatly appreciated. **

Beth led us through the courtyard. I noticed small things around the prison; the string of machetes, hammers and other melee weapons tied to the fence and the sectors of small groups of people lining the walls, they impaled the surrounding walkers. We passed a small wooden hut, the wood was rotting it wouldn't last another 6 months, especially with rain. As we walked through the first gate that led to the fields, Henry picked up his speed and started running through the grass. Panic sweeps through me.

"Henry don't run off, its not safe!" I call after him, I hold Aaron tighter as I pick up my pace going after him. Beth puts her hand out in front of me.

"Piper, its okay" she laughs, "look at the fences, do you see any holes, its perfectly safe". Oh, oh yeah, this…. I'm not used to this. I know this place is technically safe, but it really isn't. Beth seemed completely relaxed walking down the path with a baby, and only a small knife. Even if walkers can't get it here, this place makes you keep your guard down. Keeping your guard down gets you killed. I nod at Beth with somewhat understanding. We keep walking down the gravel, I see now that we are headed towards a small patch of crops at the far end of the field. Two figures seem to be working in the area.

"Yeah…I know…I'm just… Not, you know used to it" I explain, Aaron squirms in my arms, he points at the child in Beth's arms.

"Gaaargfdsggh" The infant garbles, his hand move up and down. I fight with him to keep him from falling.

"Aaron keep still" I insist as I shift my grip upward. Beth turns to look at me with the struggling child. She smiles deeply.

"I see Judith here has a new friend," she says shaking Judith in her arms. The second child giggles joyfully. I smile as we arrive at the crops. Carl and Rick seem to be picking beans from the sprouted plants. "Sorry to interrupt, your _extremely _important work" Beth interrupts smiling. The father and son look up from their work, Carl has a bored look painted on his face, he's wearing a dark green t-shirt with a faded red plaid over it, accompanied by dark blue jeans. They're a lot nicer then his boxer pajamas, I smile at the memory of this morning. Beth nudges me forward. Why the hell did she do that? What am I going to say?

"I…..um…" I look at Beth with confusion… "Wait…why am I here?" I ask her. Rick chuckles softly. I look up at them; Carl has a grin on his face. Beth makes a dramatic sigh.

"Well, Daryl and Merle came back with a deer but that was about two hours ago…so dinner'll be ready in about twenty minuets, and Carol's class has probably already been let out" Beth says. Carl looks up at her, his hat slowly edging its way down his face.

"And…" He asks, Beth looks at him with mild amusement.

"And…. Show Piper the way while I talk to Rick, be a gentleman" She rolls her eyes and points to what seems to be the mess hall. She turns to me, "Piper I know you don't completely trust us, but your going to have to let go of that baby at some point" I stare at her blankly, "Hand him to Rick, and we'll take him and Judith for a nap". Rick looks at me and offers his hands.

"Its okay, he'll be safe," He says kindly, I think for a moment. How bad can it be? I mean he has two kids he can't be that bad? I slowly hand smiling Aaron over to Rick. The missing weight feels alien but nice; my arms feel free and able. Rick smiles at me as he cradles the infant. He looks like dad. I feel someone shaking my shoulder; I turn to see Carl pointing by the fence.

"Hey isn't that your brother?" he observes, I look to where he points. Henry is there yelling at a bunch of kids. Oh god, seriously? What did this kid do now? I sprint towards Henry and the rest of the kids.

"Hey! Wait up!" Carl yells as he runs after me. I barley hear him, all I hear is Henry yelling at the other kids. At least it was a family trait to look like a jackass in front of people.

"Henry, what are you doing!" I yell as I reach them, I grab his shoulder. He turns towards me and throws his hands up in the air with frustration.

"Piper! These stupid kids are naming the biters!" He yells. Wow seriously, why the…Who names walkers?

"Hey, don't call them stupid!" I say calmly, I turn to the kids. There are about five kids standing there glaring at Henry and I. There's a familiar face in the group, Lizzie is one of the kids.

"He-ey Lizzie…" I laugh nervously, "I'm sure this is a big misunderstanding but—"

"—PIPER!" Carl yells, he finally reaches me painting "Why'd you run…" he catches his breath "Are you naming Walkers again?" he asks the kids harshly, then looks at me "Oh…sorry…keep talking", I smile sarcastically as I look back at Lizzie and the others.

"Yeah, again…. biiiig misunderstanding" I say waving my hands in front of my face, "What's this about naming walkers" I ask. Lizzie looks doubtful, then one of the youngest girls next to Lizzie steps forward.

"Well one of them had a nametag, so we thought they all should" The girl states innocently. I smile at her, and reach to grab the helm of Henrys shirt. I pull him in front of the girl.

"Henry, say sorry for yelling" I say staring at the girl.

"WHAT! NO!" Henry yells, he steps back and shakes his head violently. I grit my teeth.

"Henry" I say with gritted sweetness, I pull him to the side, "Just do it…we want these people to like us, I don't care if it's weird," I hiss at him. Henry glares at me, but steps forward up to the girl. He looks up at her and sets his jaw with attitude.

"Listen…. Mika right?" He asks. The girl nods her blond head, so wait Mika…. Was this Lizzie's little sister? Henry looks at me, and rolls his eyes. "Anyway…I'm sorry I yelled at you…it was immature, and none of my business". Mika stares at him for a few seconds, and then breaks out into a grin.

"Its okay Henry!" she chirps, her eyes twinkle as she looks at the other kids in the group. "We where just pretending". The other children smile and nod their heads, some more hesitant than others. Lizzies face remains blank, she tenses when Mika explains. Henry smirks and looks at me.

"See Piper, everything's cool now," he says sarcastically. Carl murmurs something that sounds like 'jeez…someone's got attitude'. I look and Carl and suppress a laugh, he see's the strain of me trying not to laugh, then grins at me. The little blonde girl steps forward.

"Hi I'm Mika" she says to me, then points to Lizzie, "This is my big sister Lizzie" she smiles at me, I return the smile as Mika points a black haired boy and tells me his name is Luke, then points to another blonde girl, "This is Ellie". I look Ellie up and down. She wears a baby blue t-shirt with a red sweater, Ellie smiles shyly at me.

**Ellie's POV.**

I smiled at the new girl and her brother. They both had ash brown hair, the girls was slightly reddish. Their cloths where filthy, but they seemed okay. Henry was a little hot headed but his sister calmed him down enough. I wanted to go back inside prison, seeing the walkers by the fence just made me sad. Well these days, most things made me sad. They reminded Kevin, Sophia, my parents and just about everyone we lost, I don't know how Lizzie can look at them without crying. Of course I never asked her, I thought it'd be rude to intrude on how she thought of the walkers, even though she was a little strange. We didn't talk much, or well I didn't talk much but Lizzie had sort of become my best friend. There weren't any other kids at the prison my age apart from Lizzie and Carl, and well…Carl wasn't exactly my biggest fan. Carl thinks I'm weak; I was with him from the start of this. My best friend was one of the other kids, Sophia, but when she died…. people seemed to become more of a burden. Until we reached the prison I didn't talk to anyone. Carl thinks because I was mute for a while, that I'm weak, that I cant handle my self when death arrives, and since it arrives often, being friends with him wasn't really an option, the best I could hope for with him was acquaintance.

"Soooo, how old are you guys," The brown hair girl says snapping me out of my daze. I wait for Lizzie to respond; I don't have to, Lizzie pretty much talks for me, as I predicted she walks up to the girl.

"Well… I'm 14…." she says. Then points to Mika, "Mika's 9," She points to Luke and the rest, and then she tells people their ages. "And Ellie's our age" she finishes with a small wave at me. Carl clears his throat.

"We should get to dinner, Daryl brought back a deer and I plan on eating it," He says gruffly, he turns to the new girl, I already forgot her name. "Piper, Follow me if you want to eat" he laughs. Wow, he's a geek even in an apocalypse. Piper raises her eyebrow at him. His smile fades, "Ya'know from terminator, 'come with me if you wan to live' it's a classic" he explains. I look at Piper; she still looks confused, how did she not know terminator? Carl sighs and looks at the group of kids "C'mon y'all lets go eat dinner". Walking up the hill I notice an obvious friend ship between Carl and Piper. They walk a few steps ahead of us chatting about…. well who cares what. The sun sent beads of sweat down my neck; the Georgia weather was taking its toll. I walk alone until I feel someone nudge me. I turn to look, its Lizzie. I like Lizzie; she's been through a lot, just like me. I smile at my friend as she wipes the sweat from her forehead.

"What do you think of the Piper and her brother" she asks curiously, behind her I hear Henry and Mika laughing. I shrug slightly. Lizzie gets annoyed, she lightly hits my shoulder. "Oh come on Ellie, I know your quiet and everything but you must have somewhat of an opinion on them" she says tilting her head. I look behind me at the laughing Henry and Mika.

"Well, they seem okay" I say quietly, Lizzie gives me a dramatic glare. I look at her smiling apologetically with my hands in a surrendering pose. "Alright, alright, well they seem safe if that's what your asking, plus Henry, though his bluntness, seems like a good friend for Mika". Lizzie considers this and shrugs, then smiles.

"I see Carl has a new girlfriend" she smirks, I look at Piper and Carl, she's jokingly punching Carl's arm while laughing hysterically; cute, I haven't seen Carl like that since…well before Sophia. I frown to myself, I shouldn't think about her. I look at Lizzie; she's a few inches taller then me. I was quite envious of Lizzie, for stupid reasons really but I couldn't help it. She was my better best friend, she seemed better at most things than me, She was stronger, and could protect herself better then me, I haven't looked in a mirror in months but I'm sure she's prettier then me.

"Yeah" I say with a half laugh, we are walking through the courtyard, people are already heading towards the mess hall. Our group of children slowly gets shorter as each of them go to find their parents, parent or for some just guardian. Henry and Mika run up to us.

"Lizzie, where Carol I'm Hungry" she says patting her stomach. Henry looks at her and laughs.

"You kiddin' " he pipes "I haven't eaten a proper meal in weeks, I've been living on cans and Pipers lousy cooking" he smiles. Piper turns and smirks at him.

"Make the most of it Hen, I might just ask to help in the kitchen" she grins. Henry makes a fake fainting motion. I chuckle slightly. "Wow I think that's the first thing I've heard you say" Piper smiles at me, I shrug. Lizzie puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Well that's the only thing your gunna' get" She smirks, "Ellie isn't too keen on talking", she turns to me "Are you?" she says sarcastically. I shrug again. Everyone laughs, even Carl. Well that's a surprise; I thought he hated my silence.

"C'mon y'all, eat up we got a run after dinner" I hear a voice say, Its Daryl. I liked Daryl, he wasn't too nice at first but I could tell he was a good guy. He grew on me when he looked for Sophia, but when the governor killed their brother Gabriel he seemed a little stronger, and less enthusiastic, but I think it effected Merle more than Daryl, either way, the guys earned their keep. We walk into the prison lunchroom. Even though the world ended, Rick had organized the basic seating arrangements. We had it by age mostly, some parents or guardians had decided to sit near their child, but most sat with other adults.

"Ellie!" I hear a voice ring from the far side of the room; it's my sister Amy. "Bring Carl and your friends over here...Rick's gotta talk to y'all" she waves at us to come her light blonde hair swaying. I see that most of our old group, or what remains of it, is sat in a circular table. I look at Lizzie, Mika, Piper, Henry and Carl. They all shrug and start walking towards the table. As we walk I hear Piper murmur to Carl.

"Is this about me and Henry?" Carl looks her; he doesn't know, I can tell.

"I…I don't think so" he says thoughtfully, he rubs his hair. I remember Shane, our old group leader; he used to rub his hair when he was thinking hard. I never liked Shane; I wish Carl wouldn't remind me of him. We reach the table, my only two of my remaining family members sit there, Amy and Andrea, they each smile at me. I smile weakly back at them. Next to Andrea sits Carol, Sophia's mom, Next to her is Rick then Merle then Hershel and Maggie. On Amy's left sits Tyrees, he looks sad as always. Tyrees had lost a lot, but shouldn't he be happy that Sasha's going to be okay? I shrug to myself; he probably has other things to be sad about, plus he's probably still mourning Karen. Rick clears his throat.

"Well...sorry for cutting your dinner short" He tells us politely, I purse my lips. "Well, as you know, are a lot of us are still recovering from the sickness" We all nod. "Anyway… we got to make a run and…well we don't have the man power"…. he looks at Amy and Carol. "We gotta send two of them with someone". This alarmed everyone.

"What!?" Amy says, she gets up from the table. "Rick, you cant be serious, they're just kids, they cant handle themselves out there". Carl tenses.

"Hey! I'm capable of taking care of myself!" He states raising his voice. I look around, Lizzie had grabbed Mika's hand and Piper had held Henry close. I always wondered what it would be like to have a younger brother or sister; I mean I don't want it now, having a little kid sibling would insure death and hurt. But before I always wanted one, I was the youngest of 4 kids, all of them older then me by at least 6 years. But to be honest its not like I could take care of someone, I wasn't like Lizzie and from what I can see I wasn't like Piper. It wasn't smart of me to want a younger sibling. Carol looks at Rick.

"Mika and Henry cant go, they're too little, you cant expect them to go," she says quietly but audible. I see Henry look up angrily.

"Hey! I'm not little, I can survive out there!" he says with anger. Wow, Henry is basically mini Carl they have the same "pride". Rick looks back at Carol.

"Yeah, of course" he turns to smile at Henry and Mika, "You two, go to a table and eat some food, okay?" Henry stiffens it looks like he's about talk until Mika grabs his arm.

"C'mon Henry, I'll show you my table!" she says happily, she steers the protesting Henry away to one of the nearby tables. I can't help but think how adorable they are.

"Anyway" Rick says looking at us. "Two of you will have to go, I'm sorry but we have to send you". I look around; he's talking to Carl, Piper, Lizzie and me.

"Lizzie not going, I wont allow it" Carol says in a flat mothering tone. Lizzie breathes in deeply.

"Mo- Ms. Carol! Why not! I'm a good shot, I can take care of myself" she pleads angrily. Carol looks at Lizzie.

"I said no, and that's final, go sit with Mika," she says pointing at where Henry and Mika sit. Lizzie bawls her fist and storms to her seat. I breathe in slightly, only three people left. It was like they were eliminating people until they reached their conclusion. I didn't want to go on the run; I was really bad at these. I wasn't strong enough to fire a gun without falling back and walkers scared the shit out of me. Hershel clears his throat. Wow I didn't realize he was still here.

"Piper shouldn't go, she just got here, and I promised Henry I wouldn't let her go," He says quickly. Piper looks up at him, her brain processing what he just said.

"Sir, if this run is for Mason, I should go," she says thoughtfully. She's right, I mean if we're risking our lives for her friend then she should at least help. A part of me scolds me for thinking so coldly. Hershel looks at her.

"I say no, you've been on the road by yourself, you're in no condition to go on a run". Rick nods.

"Piper, he's right, you should go sit with your brother" he says. His tone his kind but I can tell he's not going to welcome a no. Piper shrugs and walks towards Henry. He's shoveling meat into his mouth while Mika giggles profusely. Rick waits until she sits down, and then looks at Carl and me.

"Well, I guess its you two" Rick says. Carl grins, I on the other hand probably look terrified. Andrea and Amy exchange glances.

"Rick, you know I can go instead of her, she's 14" Amy says shakily, Andrea looks at him too.

"Yeah I can probably go too, Ellie doesn't have to go," she suggests, her pupils are dilated; she must be scared for me. I appreciate my sister's concern but I guess everyone knew how incompetent I was.

Rick looks at them, "Well, for one thing Andrea" he looks directly at her. "Your arm is broken, so you going on a run doesn't seem like the best idea". He gestures to the makeshift cast the surrounds Andreas left arm; it was almost healed but still not fully working. Andrea looks down at the table sadly. "As for you Amy, you just recovered yourself, your barley on your feet and you can barley shoot a gun" Amy looks at him and frowns. "Hey…. she'll be fine, give her a chance, she's going to have to do it eventually". He's right, I should say something, I should them I'm going to be fine, well I don't know if I'll be fine but I should at least tell them. Instead I just stand there. Rick looks at Carl. "Son, I know I haven't let you do anything in the past few months" he reaches to his belt and pulls out a Baretta. "I'm giving this back for the run, you will give this back to me when you get back" he says slowly. Carl takes the gun and nods.

"So where we headin', Bigspot again?" Carl asks. Rick shakes his head and looks at the rest of the group. Maggie and Hershel frown sadly.

"Well…" Rick says, he looks down at the floor. "You're going to be going to the farm". Wait…the farm as in Hershel's farm? The place where we left? The place we found… Sophia?

"Wait, like your farm" Carl addresses the Greenes; they nod gravely.

Rick turns to me, "I suppose you'll be needing a gun". He looks at me sympathetically.

"I guess so" I mumble, and shrug. I didn't want to gun, couldn't anyone else go? There had to be one adult that wasn't busy.

"Well, after dinner you come to me and I'll give you your gun" Rick says, he nods to the table. "Go, eat up".

**Thanks for reading :))))**


	10. Chapter 9

**WADDUP BIATCHES, hia I got another chapter for y'all to read (well hopefully you'll read it) it gets kinda cool. Have fun, Comment/favorite/follow or all three (with much hope) every type of support would be great, a comment can't hurt right? :) Apologize in advance for some minor spelling/grammar.**

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**_Pipers POV_**

Watching Henry eat made me happy; watching him spit out his food laughing made me even happier. Mika was good; she was his age and more importantly she could make him smile. I didn't really want to leave the prison, it was safe, but if Mason was going to die, I should help them get the stuff for his survival. I shake Mason from my thoughts, I should focus on the now, and everything was all right for now. Henry and Mika burst out laughing again.

"Seriously guys, what are you laughing about?" I ask smiling. Henry was never good at making friends, so his sudden immediate friendship with Mika surprised me. Mika turns to me still choking on a laugh.

"Henry does….." she laughs again, and turns to Henry "…Henry show…her the face..", she slams her hand down on the table still laughing uncontrollably, Henry looks at me and smiles. His eyes roll back and he lifts his hands up to his mouth. His lips curls up, this combined with his eyes it looks ridiculous. Lizzie sits besides me shaking with laughter, I look at the blonde girl and smile.

"Well I guess they've bonded," I say to Lizzie, she smiles at me.

"They're adorable," she replies. They really were, I mean they were only about 9 but I could tell that Henry had a little crush on Mika. He used to have a thing for this girl at his school, I'm pretty sure her name was Carly, but whenever he talked to her he used to blush. A lot. This was like bright red and completely adorable. Observing him talking to Mika made it clear that he liked her, it was truly adorable. I lean toward Lizzie.

"I'm like 98% sure that my brother likes Mika" I whisper humorously. Lizzie opens her mouth with a mocked shock. She leans towards me.

"No kidding," she giggles. She looks around the lunchroom and furrows her eyebrow. "Shit… I think Ellie and Carl are gunna go on a run", she looks worried.

"Is that really a problem?" I ask, Lizzie looks at me with a pathetic look and sighs.

"Well…Carl is fine, but…. well from what I can tell Ellie isn't the best at shooting and she's very… well...uncommunicative" She looks at me sadly; from what I saw outside Ellie seemed very reserved.

"I'm sure she'll be fine" I say, Lizzie nods with false reassurance, "I mean she lasted this long, I'm sure she can handle the dead" I respond confidently. Lizzie looks at Ellie.

"Its not the walkers I'm afraid of," she says gravely. Ellie and Carl turn from Rick and head towards our table. I see the immediate difference between the two; Carl has an exited smile painted on his face, while Ellie's face looks a little green, like she's about to throw up, her fists are clenched with panic. I feel bad for her, I can tell she's not weak…but she's defiantly shaken, and honestly I wouldn't want to leave this place either.

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**Ellie's POV**

Walking to the table made me feel like shit. It wasn't that I was about to go on a run for the first time in a almost a year though that almost made me want to puke up my lunch; it was the fact that everyone expected me to fail or get hurt. I mean can't they at least pretend to believe in me? Carl clears his throat.

"So…you… ya'know…scared," he asks trying to contain his excitement. I shrug. He pouts slightly. "Jeez Ellie, at least talk about it, I for one am exited" he says as we sit down. I pick a seat next to Lizzie, and Carl places himself next to Piper. I look at him and sigh.

"I guess…it's just…" I start; he raises an eyebrow. "I'm not scared, I'm just nervous, I don't really want to go back to the farm, where Sophia..." I look down. Carl nods with understanding. I hear Mika and that new boy Henry giggle.

"Seriously guys its not that funny" Piper says smiling, I see Lizzie nod while she laughs.

"Yeah guys jeez," she laughs jokingly. Piper smiles at Lizzie, a wave of jealousy washes over me, that new girl was _not_ taking the only friend I had. To my relive I see Carl poke Piper with his fork; he's trying to get her in conversation. The brown haired girl turns and I look down my plate; Ricks conversation about the run made me lose my appetite. I sit and twirl my fork in my food, I feel someone ruffle the top of my hair, since its is in a ponytail it just ends up messing up the top; I look up its Amy.

"H-hey Amy…. you come to tell me that I'll be fine?" I ask smoothing my hair, she smiles at me sweetly.

"You should eat Ellie, you'll need your strength for later" she says weakly. She was barley recovering from the sickness; she should still be in bed. I make myself smile at her.

"Yeah…I-I'm just not that Hungry" I say softly looking at her, Amy reaches in front of me and grabs my fork and shoves food in my mouth. I giggle with food falling from my jaws. Amy smiles and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Eat!" she says bluntly and walks away to a table with Andrea, Beth and Maggie. I smile, wipe my face and turn to my food, I see everyone at the table looking at me.

"What?" I ask with my fork dangling in front of my face. Piper looks at me still chewing.

"With…Amy…" she swallows, "You actually look normal" she grins and shovels more food in her mouth. I sit back in my chair and smile, I hear a clank; Carl gets up from his seat.

"Well, I'm done…I'm going to go!" he grins licking his lips, he turns to me. "You commin'" he asks. I raise my eyebrow at him.

"What?" I ask, "um...why? He tilts his head.

"Well I figured….y'know" he shrugs "We should get ready to go" he rubs his hands together with anticipation. I look at my plate, its not like I was going to finish it anyway. I shrug and get up. Carl beams, "C'mon" he runs towards Ricks table.

"Wish me luck," I murmur to Lizzie. She gives me a sarcastic thumb up.

"Seriously you'll be fine" she says then changes her tone, "You will be carful right?", nodding I head towards Rick; Carl is already talking with his dad, he then runs out of the lunchroom. I can feel my friend and Piper stare at my back as I walk to the table; jeez they can at least be discrete. As soon as I get to the table Rick looks at me and reaches to his belt. He pulls out a gun; I wouldn't know what type it is until Merle chokes on a laugh. Normally I liked Merle but sometimes he could be a little…I guess you could call it well mean.

"Rick you serious, you givin' little bit the Taurus caliber?" he laughs, "She'll fall back on her ass". Carol, who is sitting beside him, smacks his arm. "But, you'll be fine" he tries to smile. Merle couldn't really smile very well. I wince lightly.

"Thanks" I murmur, Rick hands me the gun, I feel the unfamiliar weight in my arms. "Do…I…um" I reach to my neck. "Do I get a…holster or something," I mumble. Rick nods and pulls out lump of leather.

"Here, attach it to your belt" He turns to Merle "Get Daryl and George for the run", Merle goes off to find his brother as Rick gets up and turns to the other side of the lunchroom. "Maggie! Its time to go!" he calls out. Maggie appears next to me with Amy and Andrea. He turns to Maggie, "You guys are taking the Hyundai," he says lightly. Maggie nods and looks at me,

"You ready Ellie?" she asks carefully. I sigh, I still wondered why I had to go, there had to be someone, anyone else that could have gone instead of me.

"I guess," I say looking down at my feet. Amy and Andrea come up to me.

"We're going to walk you out okay?" Amy says kindly, I force a smile. We walk outside; the feeling of nervousness builds as Andrea refreshes me on how to load my gun. I fumble with the clip but I get it over with. Once we get out of the prison I can see the sun already setting; they must really need the supplies, no one ever went on a run at night.

We head down with the moon lighting the path to where the group is waiting. Thank god Maggie was going with me, if she wasn't I'd be the only girl going on this trip. Carl stands by the green Hyundai; he's wearing his blue baseball shirt with his dad's old sheriffs hat, I guess he changed for the run. Next to him is Daryl with his crossbow pressed against his usual black sleeveless leather jacket, slumped on the hood of the car is his brother Merle, he's wearing a sleeveless white vest, with a light brown button over shirt. Standing stiffly next to Merle was one of the people from Woodbury; his name was George and was one of the few who didn't get sick.

His buttoned up red plaid shirt was filthy, dark patches of red splattered the helm and chest, and along with dirty blue jeans he looked like a full on redneck. With short black jagged hair; he probably cut it himself. I looked at Maggie, she stared back sympathetically; she knew I just wanted to stay at the prison.

"C'mon, the sooner we leave the sooner we get back" she pats my back lightly, and walks towards the car. I see Merle and Daryl argue about who's going to ride the motorcycle, Merle was probably going to win, it was his bike after all. I turn to Amy and Andrea.

"See you soon right?" I ask. I get a smothering hug from Andrea as Amy rubs my shoulder.

"Yeah, you'll be fine" Andrea says reassuringly. Amy turns to Carl.

"You'll make sure she's okay right?" she asks carefully, Carl gives me a enigmatic smile.

"Sure thing Amy" he says, I glare at him. They think I can't take of myself! I press my lips together and cross my arms.

"I can take care of myself, ill be fine" I say, I'll totally be fine right? Sure of course I'll be fine. I wave at my sisters and get into the back near the window. Carl goes and sits next to me, while Maggie gets the other window seat. George climbs in the passenger seat, and Daryl heads to the drivers seat; I guess Merle won the bike. I see Daryl roll the window down and poke his out.

"Ya' ready Merle!" he calls out, Merle nods his head and Daryl starts the car. Merle starts his bike and goes ahead of us. The rumble of the motors attracts the nearby walkers to the fence. The car follows at a slow pace as Andrea opens the front gates. I slump in my seat; I tap my gun in my hands nervously. Though the car was new when this all started, the smooth leather had dirt and blood splatter all over it. Daryl turns his head around. "We ought to get there in about 5 hours, four if we don't run into anything," he says. George is busy reading a map but Carl and I nod. For most of the trip we sit in silence the woods rush past us in a blur, I stare out the window mindlessly. After god knows how long Carl coughs loudly; I stare at the brown haired boy.

"Soooooo…" he starts awkwardly, his shoulders are tense with excitement. I can understand it; he hasn't been aloud on a run for months. I sigh, making it clear that he should get whatever he's about so say over with. "Uh…" he rubs the back of his head, nocking the tip of his hat over his eyes. I roll my eyes. I see Maggie smile and look out of the window.

"You gonna' talk or what" I insist quietly, I really wasn't interested in his mumbling. He gives me a pathetic glance. I sigh again, was this kid serious? "Yeah Carl, I talk…." I turn my head at him. "We've been for hours" I shrug, "We might as well speak to each other". He looks at me curiously.

"Alright…" he says sitting up, he rubs his hand together. "So, wacha wanna talk about?" he asks. I furrow my eyebrows and straighten up.

"Huh… I've never really gotten this far" I turn to Carl, "Lizzie…. um…. Lizzie normally like… you 'know…." Carl nods.

"She normally does most of the talking" he finishes, smiling sadly. I nod solemnly.

"Yeah…" I say as I crack my neck. "Lizzie's pretty great" the car turns a corner. We had to be almost there by now.

"Bit weird though… … you seen her with the walkers?" he says humorously, "I mean c'mon" he chuckles "She thinks they're people Ellie, they're not people." I give him a mean look.

"She's just coping with this thing the best she can" I blurt at Carl, he raises his hands in surrender, I sigh, 'Plus who isn't weird these days" Carl nods, he opens his mouth to say something but Daryl interrupts him.

"We're commin' up at the farm, get yur' shit together so we can go in and out" he say gruffly. We turn onto a road; I see the farm loom in the darkness, I see the barn…the place where we found Sophia its scorched black and crumbling, as we arrive I can see the lack of walkers. I guess the herd didn't stick around but I mean why would it? We left here months ago. Daryl pulls up in the car to the side of the house I remember this exact spot; It was where Lori and Beth dragged me to the car when the herd attacked, I remember screaming at them to let me get Andrea, clawing at their arms. Maggie climbs out of the car and sighs sadly.

"Makes you sad huh?" Carl says straightening his hat; Carl has aged a lot during apocalypse, his hair has grown out, his face older and sterner and mostly he just has an adult attitude. I envy his ability to mold into this world, here I am weak and barley able to defend myself and this boy becomes one of our valued members of the group. "Ellie, you hear me?" he asks as I get out of the car; I stare at the house. The dead people who stayed with us at the farm rush through my mind, T-dog, Otis, Shane, Dale, Patricia, Jimmy and that weird guy, I think his name was Randle. I remember when Rick and Shane brought him to the camp; he scared me. Daryl abruptly slams the door shut.

"Merle! Get your ass over here!" Daryl calls out, I see Merle park his bike up by the house.

"Hold ya horses brother!" Merle calls gruffly. He strides lazily towards us. Carl clears his throat.

"Um…Daryl, shouldn't you…like keep it down" he asks looking around for walkers, Merle appears, he rests the knife attached to his hand on flat on Carl's shoulder.

"You see any biters son?" Merle chuckles lightly, we all gather in a sort of group formation. Daryl rolls his eyes as he loads the bolts in his crossbow.

"Alright" he announces, we all look at him. "We're gonna go through the house quick and fast" Daryl looks through his pockets and looks up at George. "Man, you got the list?" he asks. George nods and pulls out a small scrap of paper from his jean pocket, that's the stuff that we need to get. Daryl snatches the paper and reads it, "Uh…we need'a get a…um in-…incu-….fuck it Hershel told me what it looks like". I smile slightly. Merle steps up forward.

"And remember, y'all see any of them biters you kill it okay? Merle says with an obvious tone. We head forward to the front porch; the white paint was even more chipped without Hershel or Otis to maintain it. We walk in a group through the grass Daryl raises his crossbow and walks in front of us; he looks behind and signals for Carl and me to get to the side of the door. George with his machete and Glock at the ready go next to Daryl. Merle sneaks across the porch as peers through the window.

"I don't see no nothin'" he shrugs, and relaxes, his only hand twitches over his gun. I feel my own shoulders tense up; I still felt uncertain of out old home. Daryl reaches for the door handle, it swings open with a slight creek. I hear loud growls, a shirtless corpse amerges from the door; its extremely malnourished, the walkers ribs poke out, one of its legs is bent oddly. It falls forward onto George.

"Aaaaauurg...get...it..off!" he yelps as he falls forward on his back, his arm reaches forward as he pushed the walker back. I stand there frozen as Merle jumps into action, he tries to pull the thing off of George, the corpse grabs Georges leg and tears the flesh. "AAAAAAAAUUR" he screeches as Merle shoves his knife through its head. George lies tense clutching his leg; he's breathing hard. "Oh god...oh fuck oh fuck! I'm fucking gone!" he yells. I see tears well in his eyes. Maggie rushes to her knees.

"Hey, George everything is gonna' be fine" she says calmly. She turns to us, "I can get him through the back door" she observes out uncertain faces, then sighs. "Its safer, I can dress his wounds with the curtains in the kitchen", Daryl nods and points his cross bow.

"Go on then" he says as the rest of us walk in a line through the door; it still hurts to see this place as if nothing happened. I see small splatters of blood lining the floor, its probably from the stray walkers. Daryl points at Merle and Carl to cheek upstairs. He and I search through the living room. We find a few of the things from the list and shove it in one of the sports bags we brought with us. Daryl turn to me.

"Kitchen." Daryl mouthed. Daryl reaches for the door, it appears to me stuck he hits the door a few times, then pushes his door open with all his weight. We slowly creep to the room where Lori and Patricia used to make dinner. I look to the side where the dinning table sits. I feel Daryl push me behind me and he jerks his crossbow at the table. George lays dead on the floor, an arrow in his head, in the corner is Maggie looking terrified. In front is a dark haired boy about my age is glaring at us with a blue compound bow aiming at our heads. My heart pounds in my chest.

"I suggest y'all be leaving now"

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**HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I'm ending it here mofo's. Hope you had fun reading it and be sure to check out my other story. **

**Also check out my bro ****Samman2679**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the lack of writing, I've had some of writer block and a shit ton of school stuff to get done. Enjoy, will be trying to write more! And as always, Favorite/follow and more importantly comment!**

**Ellie's POV**

"I suggest ya'll be leaving now" the boy says flatly, I saw that his black sweater has scratches and cuts everywhere, blood and a jagged red line coats his dirty blue t-shirt, a long tear goes up along his black jeans. He keeps his gaze as Daryl steps around the room catlike. They walk around each other while with bows raised I remain by the door. I raise my gun shakily.

"George…" I whisper softly, Daryl's eyes locks onto the corpse.

"You killed our man, no way in hell we're leaving" Daryl says gruffly, I see Maggie's gun lying in the pool of George's blood. How had a roughed up kid like this manage to disarm Maggie and kill George. Hopefully Merle and Carl would return from upstairs soon.

"He was bit." Shrugged the boy, killing George obviously had no effect on him at all.

"No! It was just a scratch! We could have done something!" Maggie splutters, the boy glances at her and raises his eyebrow.

"You and I both know he was gonna' die" he replies calmly. Daryl nods frowning; still glaring the kid steps forward towards Daryl, his bow still raised.

"Now that we've gotten that resolved I ain't gunna' repeat my self," he says moving his bow slightly towards the door; telling us to leave. I hear the creaking from upstairs get slower and quieter, I walk a few paces until I'm a few feet beside Daryl, the boy looks up at the ceiling. "How many men you got up there" he asks.

"Enough." Daryl says with gritted teeth. The boy smiles sarcastically,

"Now that ain't no way to be," he steps in front of me and meets my eyes with his eyes, his blue on my green. I hear the footsteps slowly coming down the stairs. The boy rushes at me and grabs my arm. He pulls me in front of him just as Daryl is about to shoot; the kid pulls a knife from his belt and thrusts it against my throat. Maggie gasps and runs forward, Daryl jerkily grabs her wrist pulling her away from the boy and me. "Ah ah ah" the boy warns moving his knife gently by my throat. Shit. I'm so fucking screwed. "Now, you'll tell your buddies upstairs to not draw fire on me or else the Blondie gets it". On cue, Merle and Carl walk through the kitchen.

"Everythin' alri—" Carl starts, his eyes widen as he see's the boy. "shit." Merle quickly raises his gun.

"Now listen here you shit sipper—" Merle starts raising his arm at the kid. I felt the boys arm tension around me.

"I suggest not saying anything rash" the kid, the knife pressed further to my neck, I must be bleeding by now.

"Please…." I whisper to the kid, his grip slightly weakens until Carl speaks up.

"Just let her go dipshit!," he hisses, his hands griping the gun on his side. Maggie comes forward.

"Kid, please.. we're not gonna' do nothing to ya, just let'er go" she says shakily, Carl looks at the kid again.

"C'mon we got our stuff, as soon as you let her go, we'll be on our way" he says. I look at him; wait where the hell is Merle. I hear a loud thwak! And the boys grip on me weakens and goes limp. His weight pushes me down to the floor.

"Help!" I sequel as he topples, Carl and Daryl rush forward to lift him off. Maggie pulls me to the side and hugs me. She then gets to her knees and puts her hands to my arms.

"Ellie, sweetie are you alright?" she says in my year, I nod and wipe my neck. Red smears my hand. "shit… is your neck okay?" she asks.

"Y-yeah, just a small cut..." I reply shakily, I look at the crumpled boy on the floor; his hair is swept over so I can't see his face. "Are we taking him with us?" I ask loudly so that everyone can hear. Daryl looks up at Maggie and me.

"Absolutely not" he states blankly, "He killed George and damn nearly killed you, he ain't coming back to the prison". Maggie shrugs her shoulder.

"We can't just leave him like this…" she says with her arm around my shoulder, walking towards everyone.

"Why the hell not!" Carl protests, I don't know whether it's the fact that he almost killed me, or that Carl couldn't stop him, but Carl seems to have an instant dislike of the kid. Maggie glares at him,

"Because, look at him, he's all scratched up, not to mention he's only like 14 years old" she says. Merle sighs deeply and turns to Daryl.

"Lug em' in the car brother" Merle decides, when Daryl opens his mouth to protest Merle shakes his head, "Just do it man!" he raises his voice. I see them glare at each other; Daryl throws his crossbow around his shoulder and bends to pick up the boy from the ground. Only now do I see the medical supplies in Carl and Merles hands, I wouldn't know what any of the stuff is, but I remember the thing that Rick used to give blood to Carl when we first got to this farm. We start walking to the car.

"What about George?" I ask Maggie quietly, she shakes her head,

"Ellie, there aint nothing that we can do, his only friend was Merle not counting his brother and Mike's not gonna want to see him like that …" she replies sadly.

"But….." I got nothing, I sigh, "never mind" I say and pick up my pace to the car, why couldn't be at least bury him? Pay our respects to him. We get in the car, Maggie takes George's seat and the passed out boy is put slumped between me and Carl; his hands are tied at the wrists, and his bow thrown in the trunk, Merle climbs on his bike and makes the single for us to start leaving.

**Pipers POV**

I'm pretty sure Lizzie was panicking, well not pretty sure….I was sure; Ellie and the group had been gone for hours, not to mention they had Mason's meds. I felt her nails dig into my arm.

"They've been gone for ages… do you think they're okay!" she gives me a panicked look. We're sitting in the library, Mika and Henry sit across the room slumped on each other. They had fell asleep around three hours ago, but every time we woke them up to take them to bed they refused.

"I'm sure they're fine" I reassure, I didn't know how to keep this up, "How far is it to the farm anyway?" I ask trying to distract her; certainly they should be back any minuet.

"Uh…I dunno', I was never there, should be about four hours there and back though…. they should be back…" she turns to me, "Do you think they're in trouble?" she asks her voice wavering. I awkwardly pat her back, I'd never really had "girl friends" before so I didn't know how do deal with all this 'emotional stuff'. It was really confusing.

"Um… they're fine," I say sternly, Lizzie nods, I'm pretty sure she can tell I'm struggling to keep this conversation up.

"Yeah, they should get here quick or else that kids gonna' pass" she says, I see her eye brows struggling as if she was fighting something in her mind, its probably just focus. I shift uncomfortably at the mention of Mason. She frowns and looks at me apologetically, "But who know's, maybe that'll be better that way, he'll live forever, at least he's with Dexter in the infirmary so he's with another person." she says nodding. What. Wait. What did she say before?

"What?! What did you say before" I asked stunned, she looks at me weirdly.

"Ya'know, he'll come back" she smiles; there was something defiantly wrong with Lizzie I knew now for sure. "Like Dexter, he has some sort of cancer Hershel said, obviously we can't treat it, he'll come back soon".

"Yeah...he'll come back…..as one of those things….Lizzie you don't actually think the biters are people right?" I question already knowing the answer. After a long pause she answers.

"Well…no, I know they're not exactly people…but they're something" she says finally "They're in there…. somewhere, they just need help" she says sadly. I could understand her thinking; I mean we don't know what these things were but I knew one thing for certain: they were not people.

"Lizzie…. they eat people…kill them." I say trying to get her to understand, she nods as if she'd heard it all before.

"Yeah, but that's all everyone says, 'they kill people' but people kill people and they're still people right?" she asks with her eyes focused on me.

"But when people kill people…it means…well it means that they're bad people" I say, I doubted whether I was going to get through to her. Lizzie gives me a look.

"Bad people are still people." She says emotionless, with that we hear screams from the hall.

**Ellie's POV**

We we're about 10 minuets from the prison, the boy was still out cold, Carl was being his usual self and staring moodily out the window. I put my hands to my neck, it felt tender and it stung like hell, I choose to dismiss it until I get to Hershel. The new kid shifted to the side in his sleep, his forehead falling on Carl's shoulder with a small thump. Carl throws him off obviously annoyed, the boy falls forward hitting his head on the console.

"Carl!" I say accusingly, I bend forward with my chest pushing against the seat belt; I was the only one wearing one. He shrugs as I tenderly pull the kid up and lightly lean him back against the seat of the car. His left eye flickers and opens to show electric blue, I shift up looking to tell Maggie, he grabs my arm with his bound hands and shakes his head as if he knows what I'm doing. He smiles, he looks as though in a dream; his eyes seem to look nowhere in particular and he seems…distant.

"Sam." He whispers before letting out a breath and closing his eye again; he must have passed out again. I guess his name was Sam? I see Carl turn to look at me; Sam's grip on my arm loosens. His eyes narrow.

"Did he say something, I thought I heard him say something?" he asks curiously. Maggie turns from her seat, her eyes alert.

"Wait, he said something?" she adds on to Carl, Daryl simply grunts as if to ask what everyone is wondering. I think quickly.

"Uh…..no" I say with a small curve at the end, I was a shit liar and I knew it, they all simply shrugged, thank god everyone was tied, Carl kept looking out the car window. I could see the prison. The closer we got, the more I felt as though something was wrong.

No one appeared near the gates to open for us, I could hear a faint screaming from the insides. Amy! Andrea! They could be in trouble.

"We have to get in there!" I say desperately at everyone. We get out the car to see Merle struggling at the gates. A figure appears in the prison courtyard, Michonne. She runs towards us full speed with her Katana, Why did she have her katana? I see a small amount of blood on it. She opens the gates as we rush forward, Maggie gets back in the car to drive it through, Carl, Daryl and I run towards the prison. I hear Michonne shout after us, "Careful! Walkers in the prison!"

**Hope y'all liked it! **


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